
GopyrigkN", 






COPVKIGHT DEPOSIT. 



-5^ 




George Washington. 

Painted bj- Kenibiandt Teale. 



A BRIEF HISTORY 



OF THE 



UNITED STATES 



BY 



JOHN BACH McMASTER 

PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY 
OF PENNSYLVANIA 



oj*:c 



NEW YORK •:• CINCINNATI •:• CHICAGO 

AMERICAN BOOK COMPANY 



LIBRARY of CONGRESS 

Two CoDttf Received 

MAV 7 1907 

Cooynght Entry 

CUSS fCL XXc, No. 

/ y & / r o 

COPY B. 



Copyright, 1907, by 
JOHN BACH McMASTER. 



McM. BRIEF. 
E-P I 






PREFACE 

It is not too much to- assert that most of our countrymen 
acquire at school all the knowledge they possess of the past 
history of their country. In view of this fact it is most desira- 
ble that a history of the United' States for elementary schools 
should present not only the essential features of our country's 
pi-ogress which all should learn, but also many things of sec- 
ondary consequence which it is well for every young American 
to know. 

In this book the text proper consists of the essentials, and 
these are told in as few words as truth and fairness will permit. 
The notes, which form a large part of the book, include the 
matters of less fundamental importance : they may be included 
in the required lessons, or may be omitted, as the teacher 
thinks proper ; however, they should at least be read. Some 
of the notes are outline biographies of men whose acts require 
mention in the text and who ought not to be mere names, nor 
appear suddenly without any statement of their earlier careers. 
Others are intended to be fuller statements of important events 
briefly described or narrated in the text, or relate to interesting- 
events that are of only secondary importance. Still others call 
attention to the treatment of historical personages or events by 
our poets and novelists, or suggest passages in standard his- 
tories that may be read with profit. Such suggested readings 
have been chosen mostly from books that are likely to be found 
in all school libraries. 

]Much of the machinery sometimes used in history teaching — 
bibliographies, extensive collateral readings, judgment ques- 
tions, and tlie like — have been omitted as out of place in a 

5 



6 PREFACE 

brief school history. Better results may be obtained by having 
the pupils write simple narratives in their own words, covering 
imjjortant periods and topics in our histor^^ : as, the discovery of 
America; the exploration of our coast and continent; the set- 
tlements that failed ; the planting of the English colonies ; the 
life of the colonists ; the struggles for possession of the country; 
the causes of the Revolution; the material develoj)ment of our 
country between certain dates ; and other subjects that the 
teacher may suggest. The student who can take such broad 
views of our history, and put his knowledge in his own words, 
will acquire information that is not likely to be forgotten. 

No trouble has been spared in the selection of interesting 
and authentic illustrations that will truly illustrate the text. 
Acknowledgment is due for permission to pliotograph many 
articles in museums and in the possession of various historical 
societies. The reproduction of part of Lincoln's proclamation 
on page 365 is inserted by courtes}^ of David McKay, publisher 
of Lossing's Civil War in America. 

JOHN BACH McMASTER. 

University of Pennsylvania. 



CONTENTS 



Discovery and Exploration 



I. The New World Found 

II. The Atlantic Coast and the Pacific Discovered 

III. France and England attempt to settle America 

The English in America 

IV. The English on the Chesapeake . . 

V. The English in New England .... 

VI. The Middle and Southern Colonies . 

VII. How the Colonies were Governed 
Rivals of the English 

VIII. The Indians 

IX. The French in America 

X. Wars with the French 

XI. The French driven from America 

The American Revolution 

XII. The Quarrel with the Mother Country . 

XIII. The Fight for Independence Begun . 

XIV. The War in the Middle States and on the Sea 
XV. The War in the West and in the South . 

Development of the Union 

XVI. After the War 

XVII. Our Country in 1789 

XVIII. The New Government 

XIX. Growth of the Country, 1789-1805 

XX. The Struggle for Commercial Independence 

XXI. Rise of the AVest 

XXII. The Era of Good Feeling .... 

XXIIT. Politics from 1829 to 1841 .... 

XXIV. Growth of the Country from 1820 to 1840 



9 

19 
32 

41 

54 
70 

87 

101 
114 
123 
135 

147 
158 
169 

181 



196 
210 
222 
237 
249 
264 
280 
288 
300 



CONTENTS 



The Long Struggle against Slavery 



CHAPTER 

XXV. 

XXVI. 

XXVII. 

XXVIII. 

XXIX. 

XXX. 

XXXI. 

XXXII. 
XXXIII. 

XXXIV. 



More Territory Acquired 

The Struggle for Free Soil 

State of the Country from 1810 to 1860 

The Civil War, 1861-1863 

The Civil War, 1863-1865 

The Navy in the War ; Life in War Times 

Reconstruction • . 



PAOE 

316 
332 
340 
351 
366 
376 
385 



Economic Development 
Growth of the Country from 1860 to 1880 . . 393 
A Quarter Century of Struggle over Industrial 

Questions, 1872 to 1897 404 

The War with Spain, and Later Events . . . 421 



APPENDIX 

The Declaration of Independence i 

Constitution of the United States iv 

Table of States xiv 

Table of Presidents xvi 

Index xvii 



LIST OF COLORED MAPS 
French Claims, etc., in 1700 .... 
Eastern North America, 1754 
British Territory, 1764 ..... 
Northern Colonies during the Revolution 
Southern Colonies during the Revolution 
The United States, about 1783, showing State 

The United States, 1805 

The United States, 1824 

The United States, 1850 

The United States, 1861 

The West in 1870 (also 1860 and 1907) 

The United States and its Outlying Possessions 



Claims 



118 

1.34 

142 

168 

184 

194, 195 

242 

278, 279 

330, 331 

352, 353 

394 

425 



A BRIEF HISTORY 

OF 

THE UNITED STATES 

CHAPTER I 

THE NEW WORLD FOUND 

The New World, of whieb our country is tlie most impor- 
tant part, was discovered by Christopher Columbus in 1492. 
When that great man set sail from Spain on his voyage of dis- 
covery, he was seeking not only unknown lands, but a new 
way to eastern Asia. Such a new way was badly needed. 

The Routes of Trade. — Long before Columbus was born, the 
people of Europe had been trading with the far East. Spices, 
drugs, and precious stones, silks, and other articles of luxury 
were brought, partl}^ by vessels and partly by camels, from 
India, the Spice Islands, and Cathay (China) by various routes 
to Constantinople and the cities in Egypt and along the east- 
ern shore of the Mediterranean. There they were traded for 
the copper, tin, and lead, coral, and woolens of Europe, and 
then carried to Venice and Genoa, whence merchants spread 
them over all Europe.^ The merchants of Genoa traded chiefly 
with Constantinople, and those of Venice with Egypt. 

1 In the Middle Ages, when food was coarse and cookery poor, cinnamon 
and cloves, nutmeg and mace, allspice, ginger, and pepper were highly prized 
for spicing ale or seasoning food. But all these spices were very expensive in 
Europe because they had to be brought so far from the distant East. Even 
pepper, which is now used by every one, was then a fit gift from one king to 
another. Camphor and rhubarb, indigo, musk, sandalwood, Brazil wood, aloes 
wood, all came from the East. Muslin and damask bear the names of eastern 
cities whence they were fir.st obtained. In the fifteenth century the churches, 
palaces, manor houses, and homes of rich merchants were adorned with the 
rugs and carpets of the East. 

9 



10 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 



The Turks seize the Routes of Trade. — While this trade was 
at its height, Asia Minor (from the Black Sea to the Mediter- 
ranean) was conquered by the Turks, the caravan routes across 
that country were seized, and when Constantinople was cap- 
tured (in 1453), the trade of Genoa was ruined. Shoiihl the 
Turkish conquests be extended southward to Egypt (as later 




The known world in 1490; routes to India. 



they were), the prosperity of Venice would likewise be de- 
stroyed, and all existing trade routes to the Orient would be in 
Turkish hands. 

The Portuguese seek a New Route. — Clearly an ocean route 
to the East was needed, and on the discovery of such a route 
the Portuguese had long been hard at work. Fired by a desire 
to expand Portugal and add to the geographical knowledge of 
liis day. Prince Henry "the Navigator" sent out explorer after 
explorer, who, pushing down the coast of Africa, had almost 



THE NEW WORLD FOUND 



11 



reached the equator hefore 
Prince Henry died.^ His 
successors continued the good 
work, the equator was crossed, 
and in 1487 Dias passed the 
Cape of Good Hope and sailed 
eastward till his sailors mu- 
tinied. Ten years later Vasco 
da Garaa sailed around the 
end of Africa, up the east 
coast, and on to India, and 
broiio'ht liome a carg'o of 




A caravel, a ship of the fifteenth century. 



eastern products. A way to India by water was at last made 
known to Europe.^ 

Columbus plans a Route. — Meanwhile Christopher Colum- 
bus '^ planned what he thought would be a shorter ocean route 

1 Prince Henry was the fourth son of John I, king of Portugal. In 1419 he 
established his home on Cape St. "Vincent, gathered about him a body of trained 
seamen, and during forty years sent out almost every year an exploring expedi- 
tion. His pilots discovered the Azores and the Madeira Islands. He died in 1460. 
His great work was training seamen. Many men afterward famous as discoverers 
and navigators, as Dias (dee'ahss), Da Gama (dah gah'ma), Cabral (ca-brahl'), 
Magel'lan, and Columbus, served under Henry or his successor's. 

In those days there were neither steamships nor such sailing vessels as we 
have. For purposes of exploration the caravel was used. It was from 60 to 100 
feet long, and from 18 to 25 feet broad, and had three masts from the heads 
of which were swung great sails. Much of the steering was done by turning these 
sails. Yet it was in such little vessels that some of the most famous voyages in 
history were made. 

2 These voyages were possible because of the great progi-ess which had re- 
cently been made in the art of navigation. The magnetic compass enabled 
seamen to set their course when the sun and stars could not be seen. The astro- 
labe (picture, p. .35) made it possible roughly to estimate distances from the 
equator, or latitude. These instruments enabled mariners to go on long voyages 
far from land. Read the account of the Portuguese voyages in Fiske's Discovery 
of America, Vol. I, pp. 294-334. 

3 Christopher Columbus was a native of Genoa, Italy, where he was born 
about 1436. He was the son of a wool comber. At fourteen he began a seafar- 
ing life, and between voyages made charts and globes. About 1470 he wan- 
dered to Portugal, went on one or two voyages down the African coast, and on 
another (1477) went as far north as Iceland. Meantime (1473) he married a 
Portuguese woman and made his home at the Madeira Islands ; and it was w-hile 
living there that he formed the plan of finding a new route to the far East. 



12 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 

to the East. He had studied all that was known of geography 
in his time. He had carefully noted the results of recent 
voyages of exploration. He had read the travels of INlarco 
Poloi and had learned that off the coast of China was a rich 
and wonderful island which Polo called Cipango. He believed 
that the earth is a sphere, and that China and Cipango could 
be reached by sailing about 2500 miles due westward across 
the Atlantic. 

Columbus seeks Aid. — To make others think so was a hard 
task, for nearly everybody believed the earth to be flat, and 
several sovereigns were appealed to before one was found bold 
enough to help him. He first ai)plied to the king of Poi'tugal, 
and when that failed, to the king and queen of S[)ain.2 When 
they seemed deaf to his appeal, he sent his brother to England, 
and at last, wearied with waiting, set off for France. Then 
Queen Isabella of Spain was persuaded to act. Columbus was 

1 In 1271 Marco Polo, then a lad of seventeen, was taken by his father and 
uncle from Venice to the coast of Persia, and thence overland to northwestern 
China, to a city where Kublai Khan held liis court. They were well received,, 
and Marco spent many years making journeys in the khan's service. In 1292 
they were sent to escort a royal bride for the khan from Peking (in China) to 
Tabriz, a city in Persia. They sailed from China in 1292, i-eached the Persian 
coast in 1294, and arrived safely at Tabriz, whence they returned to Venice in 
1295. In 1298 Marco was captured in a war with Genoa, and spent about a 
year in prison. While thus confined he prepared an account of his travels, one 
of the most famous books of the Middle Ages. He described China (or Cathay, 
as it was then called), with its great cities teeming with people, its manufactures, 
and its wealth, told of Tibet and Burma, the Indian Archipelago with its spice 
islands, of Java and Sumatra, of Hindustan, — all from personal knowledge. 
From hearsay he told of Japan. In the course of the next seventy-five years 
other travelers found their way to Cathay and wrote about it. Thus before 1400 
Europe had learned of a great ocean to the east of Cathay, and of a wonderful 
island kingdom, Cipan'go (Japan), which lay off its coast. All this deeply 
interested Columbus, and his copy of Marco Polo may still be seen with its mar- 
gins full of annotations. 

- These sovereigns were just then engaged in the final struggle for the ex- 
pulsion of the Moors from Spain, so they referred the appeal to the queen's 
confessor, who laid it before a body of learned men. This council of Salamanca 
made sport of the idea, and tried to prove that Columbus was wrong. If the 
world were round, they said, people on the other side must walk with their 
heads down, which was absurd. And if a ship should sail to the undermost 
part, how could it come back ? Could a ship sail up hill ? 



THE NEW WORLD FOUND 



13 




Ktchiny by F/eniing. 



The council of Salamanca. 



recalled,! shi[)s were provided with which to make the voyage, 
and on Friday, the 3d of August, 1492, the jSanta Maria 
(sahn'tah mah-ree'ah), the Pinta (peen'tah), and the Nina 
(neen'yah) set sail from Palos (pah'ios), on one of the great- 
est voyages ever made by men.^ 

1 Oil the way tr France Columbus stopped, by good luck, at the monastery of 
La Rabida (lah rau'bee-dah), and so interested the prior, Juan Perez (hoo-ahn' 
pa'rath), in his scheme, that a messenger was sent to beg an interview for 
Perez with the queen of Spain. It was granted, and so well did Perez plead the 
cause of his friend that Columbus was summoned to court. The reward Colum- 
bus demanded for any discoveries he might make seemed too great, and was 
refused. Thereupon, mounting his mule, he again set off for France. Scarcely 
had he .started when the royal treasurer rushed into the presence of the queen 
and persuaded her to send a messenger to bring Columbus back. Then his 
terms were accepted. He was to be admiral of all the islands and countries he 
might discover, and have a part of all the gems, gold, and silver found in them. 

2 The vessels were no larger than modern yachts. The Santa Maria was 
.single-decked and ninety feet long. The Pinta and Nina (picture, p. 11) were 
smaller caravels, and neither was decked amidships. In 1893 reproductions of 
the three vessels, full size and as exact as possible, were sent across the sea by 
Spain, and exhibited at the World's Fair in Chicago. 



14 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 

The Voyage Westward. — The little fleet went first to the 
Canary Islands and thence due west across the Sea of Darkness, 
as the Atlantic was called. The voyage was delightful, but every 
sight and sound was a source of new terror to the sailors. An 
eruption of a volcano at the Canaries was watched with dread as 
an omen of evil. They crossed the line of no magnetic variation, 
and when the needle of the compass began to change its usual 
direction, they were sure it was bewitched. They entered the 
great Sargasso Sea and were frightened out of their wits by 
the strange expanse of floating vegetation. They entered the 
zone of the trade winds, and as the breeze, day after day, 
steadily wafted them westward, the boldest feared it would be 
impossible to return. When a mirage and flights of strange 




j^(U,^. -^ 



Sea monsters drawn on old maps. 



birds raised hopes that were not promptly realized, the sailors 
were sure they had entered an enchanted realm. ^ 

Land Discovered. — Columbus, who was above such fear, 
explained tlie unusual sights, calmed the fears of the sailors, 
hid from them the true distance sailed,^ and steadily pursued 
his way till unmistakable signs of land were seen. A staff 
carved by hand and a branch with berries on it floated by. 
Excitement now rose high, and a reward was promised to the 
man who first saw land. At last, on the night of October 11, 

1 The ideas of geography held by the unlearned of those days are very curious 
to us. They believed that near the equator was a fiery zone where the sea boiled 
and no life existed ; that hydras, gorgons, chimeras, and all sorts of horrid 
monsters inhabited the Sea of Darkness ; and that in the Indian Ocean was a 
lodestone mountain that could draw nails out of ships. Because of the way in 
which ships disappeared below the horizon, it was believed that they went down 
hill, and that if they went too far they could never get back. 

- The object of Columbus was not to let the sailors know how far they were 
from home. 



THE NEW WORLD FOUND 



15 



Columbus beheld a light moving as if carried by hand along a 
shore. A few hours later a sailor on the Pinta saw land dis- 
tinctly, and soon all beheld, a few miles away, a long, low 
beach. ^ 

The Voyage among the Islands. — Columbus thought he had 
found one of the islands of the Indies, as the southern and 

1 Columbus was not the first European to reach the New World. About 
six hundred years earlier, Vikings from Norway settled in Iceland, and from the 




Ancient Viking ship found buried in Norway. 

Icelandic chronicles we learn that about 1)86 a.d. Eric the Red planted a colony 
in Greenland. His son, Leif p:ricsson, about 1000 a.d., led a party south- 
westward to a stony country which was probably the coast of Labrador or 
Newfoundland. Going on southward, they came at last to a spot where wild 
grapes grew. To this spot, probably on the New England coa.st, Leif gave 
the name Vinland, spent the winter there, and in the spring went back to 
Greenland with a load of timber. The next year Leif's brother sailed to Vinland 
and passed two winters there. In later years others went, but none remained 
long, and the land was soon forgotten. Iceland and Greenland were looked 
upon as part of Europe ; and the Vikings' discoveries had no influence on 
Columbus and the explorers who followed him. Read Fiskc's Discuvi-ri/ of 
America, Vol. I, pp. 148-255 ; and Longfellow's Skeleton in Armor. 



16 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 

eastern parts of Asia were called. Dressed in scarlet and 
gold and followed by a band of his men bearing banners, he 
landed, fell on his knees, and having given thanks to God, took 
possession for Spain and called the island San Salvador (sahn 
sahl-va-dor'), which means Holy Savior. The day was Octo- 
ber 12, 1492, and the island was one of the Bahamas. ^ 

After giving red caps, beads, and trinkets to the natives who 
crowded about him, Columbus set sail to explore the group 
and presently came in sight of the coast of Cuba, which he 
at first thought was Cipango. Sailing eastward, landing now 
and then to seek for gold, he reached the eastern end of Cuba, 
and soon beheld the island of Haiti ; this so reminded him of 
Spain that he called it Hispaniola, or Little Spain. 

The First Spanish Colony in the New World. — When off the 
Cuban shore, the Pinta deserted Columbus. On the coast of 
Haiti the Santa Maria was wrecked. To carry all his men back 
to Spain in the little Nina was impossible. Such, therefore, 
as were willing were left at Haiti, and founded La Navidad, 
the first colony of Europeans in the New World. ^ This done, 
Columbus sailed for home, taking with him ten natives, and 
specimens of the products of the lands he had discovered. 

The Voyage Home. — The Pinta was overtaken off the 
Haitian coast, but a dreadful storm parted the ships once 
more, and neither again saw the other till the day when, but 
a few hours apart, they dropped anchor in the haven of Palos, 
whence they had sailed seven months before. As the news 
spread, the people went wild with joy. The journey of Colum- 
bus to Barcelona was a triumphal procession. At Barcelona 
he was received with great ceremony by the king and queen, 

1 Nobody knows just which of the Bahamas Columbus discovered. Three 
of the group — Cat, Turks, and Watling — each claim the honor. At present 
Watling is believed to have been San Salvador. A good account of the voyage 
is given in Irving's Life and Voyages of Columbits, Vol. I, Book iii, and in 
Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. I, pp. 408-442. 

^ When Columbus on his second voyage returned to Hispaniola, he found 
that every one of the forty colonists had perished. They had been killed by the 
natives. 



THE NEW WORLD FOUND 



17 



SCALE OF MILES 



100 200 300 100 500 600 

The lands discovered by Columbus 
are shown in solid black. 




PORTO RICO 

(BOSIQUEN) 

DOMINICA 



The West Indies — showing th« discoveries of Columbus. 

and soon afterward was sent buck with many ships and men 
to fonnd a colony and make fnrther explorations in the Indies. 
Other Voyages of Columbus. — In all Columbus made four 
voyages to the New World. On the second (1493) he discovered 
Porto Rico, Jamaica, and other islands. On the third (1498) 
he saw the mainland of South America at the mouth of the 
Orinoco River.^ On the fourth (1502—4) he sailed along the 
shores of Central America. Returning to Spain, he died poor, 
neglected, and broken-hearted in 1506.^ 

^ Despite the great thing he did for Spain, Columbus lost favor at court. 
Evil men slandered him ; his manner of governing the new^ lands was falsely 
represented to the king and queen ; a new governor was sent out, and Columbus 
■was brought back in chains. Though soon released, he was never restored to 
his rights. 

2 Columbus was buried at Valladolid, in Spain, but in 1513 his body was 
taken to a monastery at Seville. There it remained till 1536, when it was carried 
to Santo Domingo in Haiti. In 1796 it was removed and buried with imposing 
ceremonies at Havana in Cuba. In 1898, when Spain was driven from Cuba, 
his bones were carried back to Seville. 



McM. BRIEF i 



18 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 

Columbus believed he reached the Indies. — To his dying 
day Columbus was ignorant of the fact that he had led the way 
to a new continent. He supposed he had reached the Indies. 
The lands he discovered were therefore spoken of as the Indies, 
and their inhabitants were called Indians, a name given in time 
to the copper-colored natives of both North and South America. 

Spain's Claim to New-found Lands. — One of the first results 
of the discoveries of Columbus was an appeal to the Pope for a 
bull securing to Spain the heathen lands discovered ; for a bull 
had secured to Portugal the discoveries of her mariners along 
the coast of Africa. Pope Alexander VI accordingly drew a 
north and south line one hundred leagues west of the Cape 
Verde Islands, and gave to Spain all she might discover to the 
west of it, reserving to Portugal all she might discover to the 
east. A year later (1494) Spain and Portugal by treaty moved 
the "Line of Demarcation" to three hundred and seventy leagues 
west of the Cape Verde Islands (uiap, p. 20), and on this agree- 
ment, approved by the Pope, Spain rested her claim to America. 

SUMMARY 

1. For many centuries before the discovery of America, Europe had 
been trading with the far East. 

2. The routes of this trade were being closed by the Turks. 

3. Columbus believed a n(jw route could be found by sailing due west- 
ward from Europe. 

4. After many years of fruitless effort to secure aid to test his plan, he 
obtained help from Spain. 

5. On his first voyage westward Columbus discovered the Bahama 
Islands, Cuba, and Haiti ; on his later voyages, various other lands about the 
Caribbean Sea. 

6. In the belief that he had reached the Indies, the lands Columbus 
found were called the Indies, and their inhabitants Indians. 



CHAPTER II 
THE ATLANTIC COAST AND THE PACIFIC DISCOVERED 

The Atlantic Coast Line Explored. — Columbus having shown 
the way, English, Spanish, and Portuguese explorers followed. 
Some came in search of China or the Spice Islands ; some were 
in quest of gold and pearls. The result was the exploration of 
the Atlantic coast line from Labrador to the end of South 
America. 

Some Famous Voyages. — In 1497 John Cabot, sailing from 
England, reached Newfoundland, which he believed to be part 
of China.i In 1498 John Cabot and his son Sebastian, while 



Record of payment of John Cabot's pension for 1499.^ 

Photographed from the original accounts of the Bristol customs collectors, now in Westminster 

Abbey, London. 

1 This discovery made a great stir in Bristol, the port from which Cabot sailed. 
A letter written at the time states, " Honors are heaped upon Cabot. He is 
called Grand Admiral, he is dressed in silk, and the English run after him like 
madmen.'' The king gave him £10 and a pension of £ 20 a year. A pound 
sterling in those days was in purchasing power quite the equal of fifty dollars 
in our time. 

- Bristoll — Arthurus Kemys et Ricardus ap. Meiyke coUectores custumarum 
et subsidiorum regis ibidem a festo Sancti Michaelis Archangeli anno xiiiimo 
Regis nunc usque idem festum Sancti Michaelis tunc proximo seqitens reddunt 
computum de mcccckxiiii li. vii s. x d. quadr. Ue quibus. . . . Item in 
thesauro in una tallia pro Johanne Cabot, xx 11. Translation: "Bristol — ■ 
Arthur Kemys and Richard ap Meryke, collectors of the king's customs and 
subsidies there, from Michaelmas in the foii leenth year of this king's reign 
[Henry VII] till the same feast next following render their account of £ 142 
7 s. 10^ rf. ... In the treasury is one tal^y for John Cabot, £20." 

19 




ALL LANDS ON THIS SIDE CLAIMED BY SPAIN ALL LANDS ON THIS SIDE CLAIMED BY PORTUGAL 



Discovery on the east coast of America 
20 



THE ATLANTIC COAST 21 

in .search of the Spice Islands, sailed alung the coast from New- 
foundland to what is now South Carolina.^ 

Before 1500 Spaniards in search of gold, or pearls, or new 
lands had explored the coast line from Central America to 
Cap;^ St. Roque.2 

In 1500 Cabral, while on his way from Portugal to India 
by Da Gama's route (p. 11), sailed so far westward that he 
sighted the coast of the country now called Brazil. Cabral 
Avent on his way ; but sent back a ship to the king of Portugal 
with the news that the new-found land lay east of the Line of 
Demarcation. The king dispatched (1501) an expedition which 
explored the coast southward nearly as far as the mouth of the 
Plata River. 

Some Results of these Voyages. — The results of these voy- 
ages were many and important. They furnished a better 
knowledge of the coast ; they proved the existence of a great 
mass of land called the New World, but still supposed to be a 
part of Asia-i they secured Brazil for Portugal, and led to the 
naming of our continent. 

Why the New World was called America. — In the party sent 
b}' the king of Portugal to explore the coast of Brazil, was an 
Italian named Amerigo Vespucci (ah-ma'i'ee-go ves-poot'chee), 
or Americus Vespucius, who had twice before visited the coast 
of South America. Of these three voyages and of a fourth 
Vespucius wrote accounts. They were widely read, led to the 
belief that he had discovered a new or fourth part of the world, 
and caused a German professor of geography to suggest that 
this fourth part should be called America. The name was 
applied first to wliat is now Brazil, then to all South America, 
and finally also to North America, when it was found, long 

^ These voyages of Cabot were not followed up at the time. But in the days 
of Queen Elizabeth, more than eighty years later, they were made the basis of 
the F.nglish claim to a part of North America. 

" On one of these voyages the Spaniards saw an Indian village built over the 
water on piles, with bridges joining the houses. This so reminded tlieui of Ven- 
ice that they called it Vf nezuela (little Venice), a name afterward applied to a 
vast extent of country. 



22 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 

Nuc )^o SC h? partes funt latius luftratne/Sc alia 
quarta pars per Americii Vefputiucvt in fequeiiti 
bus audietur )inuenta eft/qua non video cur quis 
iure vetet ab Americo inuentore fagacis iiigcnij vi 
Amcri^ ro Amerigen quafi Amend terra / liue Americam 
ca dicendarcii Sc Europa 8c Afia a mulieribus fua for 

tita fiat noinina.Eiu$ fitu dC gentis- mores ex bis hi 
nis Amend nauigationibusquaefequimtliquide 
iiitelligidatur. 

The first printed suggestion of the name America.^ 

Part of a page from Waldseemiiller's book ' 'iixi/Kujruji/iie Introductio, printed in 1507, now in the 
Lenox Library, New York. 

afterward, that North America was part of the new continent 
and not part of Asia. 

Balboa discovers the Pacific. — The man who led the way to 
the discovery that America was not part of Asia was Balbo'a.^ 
He came to the eastern border of Panama (1510) with a band 
of Spaniards seeking gold. There they founded the town of 
Darien and in time made Balboa their commander. He mar- 
ried the daughter of a cliief, made friends with the Indians, 
and heard from them of a great body of water across the moun- 
tains. This he determined to see, and in 1513, with Indian 
guides and a party of Spaniards made his way through dense 
and tangled forests and from the summit of a mountain looked 
down on the Pacific Ocean, which he called the South Sea. 

1 " But now these parts [Europe, Asia, and Africa] have been more widely 
explored, and another fourth part has been discovered by Americus Vespucius 
(as will appear in the following pages); so I do not see why any one should 
rightly object to calling it Amerige or America, i.e. land of Americus, after its 
discoverer Americus, a man of sagacious mind — since both Europe and Asia are 
named after women. Its situation and the ways of its people may be clearly 
understood from the four voyages of Americus which follow." 

'■^ Vasco Nunez de Balboa had come from Spain to Haiti and settled down as 
a planter, but when (1510) an expedition was about to sail for South America 
to plant a colony near Panama, Balboa longed to join it. He was in debt ; so 
lest his creditors should prevent his going, he had himself nailed up in a barrel 
and put on board one of the ships with the provisions. 



THE PACIFIC OCEAN 



23 



rising 
ord ill 



Four days later, standing on the shore, he waited till the 
tide came rolling in, and then rusliing into the water, sw 
hand, he took possession of the ocean 
in tlie name of Spain. ^ 

The Pacific Crossed ; the Philippines 
Discovered. — The Portuguese mean- 
time, 1)}' sailing around Africa, had 
reached the Spice Islands. So far 
l)eyond India were these islands that 
the Portuguese sailor Ferdinand ^Nla- 
gellan took up the old idea of Colum- 
bus, and maintained that they could 
be most easily reached by sailing 
west. To this proposition the king 



1 In the course of expeditions along the 
eastern coast of Mexico, the Spaniards heard 
of a mighty king, Montezuma, who ruled many 
cities in the interior and had great stores of 
gold. In 1519 Cor'tes landed with 450 men 
and a few horses, sank his ships, and began 
inland one of the most wonderful marches 
in all history. The account of the great things 
which he did, of the marvelous cities he con- 
quered, of the strange and horrible sights he 
saw, reads like fiction. Six days after reaching 
the city of Mexico, he seized Montezuma and 
made himself the real ruler of the country ; 
but later the Mexicans rose against him and he 
had to conquer them by hard fighting. Read 
the story of the conquest as briefly told in FLske's Discovery of America, Vol. 
II, pp. 245-293. 

The Spaniards also heard rumors of a golden kingdom to the southward 
where the Incas ruled. After preliminary voyages of exploration Francisco 
Pizarro sailed from Panama in 1531 with 200 men and 50 horses to conquer Peru. 
Landing on the coast he marched inland to the camp of the Inca, a young 
man who had just seized the throne. The sight of the wliite strangers clad in 
shining armor, wielding thunder and lightning (firearms), and riding unearthly 
beasts (horses were unknown to the Indians), caused wonder and dread in 
Peru as it had in Mexico. The Inca was made prisoner and hundreds of his 
followers were killed. He offered to fill his prison room with gold as high as he 
could reach if Pizarro would set him free ; the offer was accepted and in 15.33 
some -$15,000,000 in gold was divided among the conquerors. The Inca, how- 
ever, was put to death, and the Spaniards took possession of the whole country. 




Spanish helmet and shirt of 
mail found in Mexico. 

Now in Essex Hall, Salem, Mass. 



24 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 

of Portugal would not listen ; so Magellan persuaded the king 
of Spain to let him try ; and in 1519' set sail with five small ships. 
He crossed the Atlantic to the mouth of the Plata, and went 
south till storms and cold drove him into winter quarters. ^ 
In August, 1520 (early spring in the southern hemisphere), 
he went on his way and entered the strait which now bears his 
name. One of the ships had been wrecked. In the strait 
another stole away and went home. The three remaining ves- 
sels passed safely through, and out iuto an ocean so quiet com- 
pared with the stormy Atlantic that Magellan called it the 
Pacific. Across this the explorers sailed for five months before 
they came to a group of islands which Magellan called the 
Ladrones (Spanish for robbers) because the natives were so 
thievish. 2 Ten days later they reached another group, after- 
Avard named the Philippines. ^ 

On one of these islands Magellan and many of his men were 
slain."* Two of the ships then went southward to the Spice 
Islands, where they loaded with spices. One now started for 
Panama, but was forced to return. The other sailed around 
Africa, and in 1522 reached Spain in safety. It had sailed 
around the world. The surviving captain was greatly hon- 

1 None of Magellan's vessels were as large as the Santa Maria, and three 
were smaller than the Nina. The sailors demanded that Magellan return to 
Spain. When he refused, the captains and crews of three ships mutinied, and 
were put down with difficulty. 

- Guam, which now belongs to our country, is one of the Ladrones. 

3 The Spaniards took possession of the Pliilippines a few years later, and in 
1571 founded Manila. The group was named after Philip II of Spain. In 1555 
a Spanish navigator discovered the Hawaiian Islands ; but thougli they were put 
down on the early Spanish charts, the Spaniards did not take possession of them. 
Indeed, these islands were practically forgotten, and two centuries passed before 
they were rediscovered by the English explorer. Captain Cook, in 1778. 

* Magellan was a very religious man, and after making an alliance with the 
king of the island of Cebu. he set about converting tlie natives to Ciirislianity. 
The king, greatly impressed by the wonders the white man did, consented. A 
bonfire was lighted, the idols were thrown in, a cross was set up, and the natives 
were baptized. This done, tlie king called on Magellan to help him attack the 
chief of a neighboring island ; but in the attack Magellan was killed and his 
men put to flight. This defeat so angered the king that he invited thirty 
Spaniards to a feast, massacred them, cut down the cross, and again turned 
pagan. 



THE ATLANTIC COAST 



25 



ored. The king ennobled him, and on his coat of arms was 
a gh)be with the motto ^ You first sailed around me." 

Results of the Voy- 
age. — Of all the voyages 
ever made by man up to 
that time, this of Magel- 
lan and his men was the 
greatest. It gave posi- 
tive proof that the earth 
is a sphere. It revealed 
the vast width of the 
Pacific. It showed that 
America was probably 
not a part of Asia, and 
changed the geograph- 
ical ideas of the time.^ 




Magellan's ship that sailed around the world. 



The Coast of Florida Explored. — What meantime had liap- 
pened along the coast of North America? In 1513 Ponce de 
Leon ^ (pon'tha da la-on'), a Spaniard, sailed northwest from 
Porto Rico in search of an island which the Indians told him 
contained gold, and in which he believed was a fountain or 
stream whose waters would restore youth to the old. In the 
season of Easter, or Pascua Florida, he came upon a land 
which he called Florida. Ponce supposed he had found an 
island, and following the coast southward went round the 
peninsula and far up the west coast before going back to Porto 
Rico. ^ 



1 Read the account in Fiske's Discovery of America, Vol. II, pp. 190-211. 

- Juan Ponce de Leon had sailed with Columbus on his second voyage, and 
had settled in Haiti. Hearing that there was gold in I'orto Rico, he explored it 
for Spain, in 1509 was made its governor, and in 1511 founded the city of San 
Juan (sahu hoo-ahn'). After he was removed from the governorship, he 
obtained leave to search for the island of Bimini. 

3 He now obtahied authority to colonize the supposed i.sland ; but several 
years passed before he was ready to make the attempt. He then set off with 
arms, tools, horses, and two hundre<l men, landed on the west coast of Florida, 
lost many men in a fight with the Indians, and received a wound of which he 
died soon after in Cuba. 



26 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 



B"!/ ' A "^ 




Spanish explorations in North America to 1600. 

The Gulf Coast Explored.^ — In 1519 another Spaniard, Pi- 
neda (pe-na'da), sailed along the Gulf coast from Florida to 
Mexico. On the way he entered the mouth of a broad river 
which he named River of the Holy Spirit. It was long sup- 
posed that this river was the Mississippi ; but it is now claimed 
to have been the Mobile. Whatever it was, Pineda spent 
six weeks in its waters, saw many Indian towns on its banks, 
traded with the natives, and noticed that they wore gold orna- 
ments. 

The Expedition of Narvaez. — Pineda's story of Indians with 
gold ornaments so excited Narvaez(nar-vah'eth) that he obtained 
leave to conquer the country, and sailed from Cuba with four 
hundred men. Landing on the west coast of Florida, he made 
a raid inland. When he returned to the coast the sliips which 
were sailing about watching for him were nowhere to be seen. 
After marching westward for a month the Spaniards built five 
small boats, put to sea, and sailing near the shore came pres- 
ently to where the waters of the Mississippi rush into the Gulf. 



THE ATLANTIC COAST 27 

Two boats were upset by the surging waters. The others 
reached the coast beyond, where all save four of the Spaniards 
perished. 

Four Spaniards cross the Continent. — After suffering great 
hardships and meeting with all sorts of adventures among the 
Indians, the four survivors, led by Cabeza de Vaca (ca-ba'tha 
da vah'ca), walked across what is now Texas, New Mexico, 
Arizona, and Mexico to a little Spanish town near the Pacific 
coast. They liad crossed the continent. ^ 

New Mexico Explored. — Cabeza de Vaca had wonderful 
tales to relate of "hunchback cows," as he called the buffalo, 
and of cities in the interior where gold and silver were plenti- 
ful and where the doorways were studded with precious stones. ^ 

Excited by these tales, the Spanish viceroy of Mexico sent 
Fray Marcos to gather further information. ^ Aided by the 
Indians, Marcos made his way over the desert and came at 
last to the " cities," which were only the pueblos of the Zuiii 
(zoo'nyee) Indians in New Mexico. The pueblos were houses 
several stories high, built of stone or of sun-dried brick, and 
each large enough for several hundred Indians to live in. But 
Marcos merely saw them at a distance, for one of his followers 
who went in advance was killed by the Zuiii, whereupon Marcos 
fled back to Mexico. 

The Spaniards reach Kansas. — Marcos's reports about the 
seven cities of Cibola (see' bo-la), as he called them, aroused 

1 The story of this remarkable march across the continent is told in The 
Spanish Pioneers, by C. F. Lummis. 

- There was a tradition in Europe that when the Arabs conquered Spain in 
the eighth century, a certain bishop with a goodly following fled to some islands 
far out in the Sea of Darkness and founded seven cities. When the Spaniards 
came in contact with the Indians of Mexico, they were told of seven caves from 
which the ancestors of the natives had issued, and jumped to the conclusion that 
the seven caves were the seven cities ; and when Cabeza de Vaca came with his 
story of the wonderful cities of the north, it was believed that they were the 
towns built by the bishop. 

3 At an Indian village in Mexico, Marcos heard of a country to the north- 
ward where there were seven cities with houses of two, three, and four stories, and 
that of the chief with five. On the doorsills and lintels of the best houses, he 
was told, were turquoise stones. 



28 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 




Pueblo, wooden plow, and ox cart. 

great interest, and Corona' Jo was sent with an army to con- 
quer them. Marching up the east coast of the Gulf of Cali- 
fornia and across Arizona, Coronado came at last to the pueblos 
and captured them one by one. He found no gold, but did see 
doorways studded with the green stones of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. Much disappointed, he pushed on eastward, and during 
two years wandered about over the plains of our great South- 
west and probably reached the center of what is now Kansas. ^ 
De Soto on the Mississippi. — As Coronado was making his 
way home, an Indian woman escaped from his army, and while 
wandering about fell in with a band of Spaniards belonging to 
the army of De Soto.^ 

1 Read Tlw Spanish Pioneers, by C. F. Luminis, pp. 77-88, 101-143. The 
year that Coronado returned to Mexico (1542) an expedition under Cabrilio 
(kah-breel'yo) coasted from Mexico along what is now California. Cabrilio died 
in San Diego harbor. 

■■2 Hernando de Soto was born about 1500 in Spain, and when of age went 
to Panama and thence to Peru with Pizarro. In the conciuest of Peru he so dis- 
tinguished himself that on returning to Spaiu he was made governor of Cuba. 



THE ATLANTIC COAST 29 

De Soto, as governor of Cuba, had been authorized to 
conquer and hold all the territory that had been discovered by 
Narvaez. He set out accordingly in 1539, landed an army at 
Tampa Bay, and si)ent three years in wandering over Florida, 
Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. In the spring of 1542 he 
crossed the Mississippi River and entered Arkansas, and it was 
there that one of his bands met the Indian woman who escaped 
from Coronado's army. In Arkansas De Soto died of fever, 
and was buried in the Mississippi River. His followers then 
built a few boats, floated down the river to the Gulf, and 
following the coast of Texas came linally to the Spanish settle- 
ments in Mexico. 

The French on the Coast. — - Far to the northeast explorers of 
another European nation by this time were seeking a foothold. 
When John Cabot came home from his first voyage to the 
Newfoundland coast, he told such tales of cod fisheries there- 
abouts, that three small ships set sail from England to catch 
fish and trade with tlie natives of the new-found isle. Portu- 
guese and Frenchmen followed, and year after year visited the 
Newfoundland fisheries. No serious attempt was made to settle 
the island. What Europe wanted was a direct westward 
passage through America to Cathay. Tliis John Verrazano, 
an Italian sailing under the >flag of France, attempted to find, 
and came to what is now the coast of North Carolina. There 
Verrazano turned northward, entered several bays along the 
coast, sailed by the rock-bound shores of Maine, and when off 
Newfoundland steered for France. 

The French on the St. Lawrence. — Verrazano was followed 
(1534) by Jacques Cartier (zhak car-tya'), also in search of a 
passage to Cathay. Reaching Newfoundland (map, p. 114), 
Cartier passed through the strait to the north of it, and explored 
a part of the gulf to the west. A year later he came again, 
named the gulf St. Lawrence, and entered the St. Lawrence 
River, which he thought was a strait leading to China. Up 
this river he sailed till stopped b^^ the rapids which he named 
Lachine (Chinese). Near by was a high hill which he called 



30 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 




Indian long house 



Mont Real (re-ahl'), or Mount Royal. At its base now stands 
the city of Montreal. ^ From this place the French went back to 
a steep cliff where now stands the city of Quebec, and, it is be- 
lieved, spent the win- 
ter there. The winter 
was a terrible one, and 
when the ice left the 
river they returned to 
France (1536). 

Not discouraged, 
Cartier (1541) came a 
third time to plant a colony on the river. But hunger, mutiny, 
and the severity of the winter brought the venture to naught.^ 
No Settlements in our Country. — From the first voyage of 
Columbus to the expeditions of De Soto, Coronado, and Car- 
tier, fifty years had passed. The coast of the new continent 
had been roughly explored as far north as Labrador on the 
east and California on the west. The Spaniards in quest of 
gold and silver mines had conquered and colonized the West 
Indies, Mexico, and parts of South America. Yet not a settle- 
ment had been made in our country. Many rivers and bays 

1 Landing on this spot, Cartier set forth to visit the great Indian village of 
Hochelaga. He found it surrounded with a palisade of tree trunks set in three 
rows. Entering the narrow gate, he beheld some fifty long houses of sapling 
frames covered with bark, each containing many fires, one for a family. From 
these houses came swarms of women and children, who crowded about the 
visitors, touched their beards, and patted their faces. Soon the warriors came 
and squatted row after row around the French, for whom mats were brought 
and laid on the ground. This done, the chief, a paralyzed old savage, was car- 
ried in, and Cartier was besought by signs to heal him, and when Cartier had 
touched him, all the sick, lame, and blind in the village were brought out for 
treatment. Read Parkman's Pioneers of France in the JVew World, pp. 187- 
193. 

2 As Cartier was on his way home he stopped at the harbor of St. Johns in 
Newfoundland, a hai'bor then frequented by fishermen from the Old World. 
There he was met by three ships and 200 colonists under lioberval, who ordered 
him to return. But one night Cartier slipped away in the darkness. Roberval 
went on to the site of Quebec and there planted his colony. What became of 
it is not known ; but that it did not last long is certain, and many years passed 
before France repeated the attempt to gain a foothold on the great river of 
Canada. 



THE ATLANTIC COAST 31 

had been discovered ; two great expeditions had gone into 
the interior ; but there were no colonies on the mainland of 
what is now the United States. 

SUMMARY 

1. The voyage of Columbus led to many other voyages, prompted 
chiefly by a hope of finding gold. They resulted in the exploration of the 
coast of America, and may be grouped according to the parts explored, 
as follows: — 

2. The Atlantic coast of North America was explored (1497-1535) by 
Cabot (for England) — from Newfoundland to South Carolina. 

Ponce de Leon (for Spain) — peninsula of Florida. 

Verrazano (for France) — from North Carolina to Newfoundland. 

Cartier (for France) — Gulf of St. Lawrence. 

3. The Gulf and Caribbean coasts of North America were explored 
(1502-1528) for Spain by 

Columbus — Central America. 

Ponce de Leon — west coast of Florida. 

Pineda — from Florida to Mexico. 

Narvaez expedition — from Florida to Texas. 

4. The Atlantic coast of South America was explored (1498-1520) by 
Columbus — mouth of the Orinoco. 

Other explorers for Spain — whole northern coast. 

Cabral (for Portugal) — part of eastern coast. 

Vespucius (for Portugal) — eastern coast nearly to the Plata River. 

Magellan (for Spain) — to the Strait of Magellan. 

5. The Pacific coast of America was explored (1513-1542) for Spain by 
Balboa — part of Panama. 

Magellan — part of the southwest coast. 

Pizarro (note, p. 23) — from Panama to Peru. 

Cabrillo (note, p. 28) — from Mexico up the coast of California. 

6. The Spaniards early established colonies in the West Indies, 
South America, and Mexico; but fifty years after Columbus's discovery 
there was no settlement of Europeans in the mainland part of the United 
States. Several Spanish expeditions, however, had explored (1534-1542) 
large parts of the interior : — 

Cabeza de Vaca and his companions walked from Texas to western Mexico. 

Coronado wandered from Mexico to Kansas. 

De Soto wandered from Florida beyond the Mississippi River. 



CHAPTER III 



FRANCE AND ENGLAND ATTExAlPT TO SETTLE AMERICA 

The French in South Carolina. — After the failure in 
Canada twenty years passed away before the French again 

attempted to colonize. Then 




SCALE OF MILES 



The first settlements in the South. 



(1562) Admiral Coligny (co- 
leen'ye), the leader of the 
ringuenots, or Protestants of 
P^ ranee, sought to plant a col- 
ony in America for his perse- 
cuted countrymen, and sent 
forth an expedition under 
Ribaut (ree-bo'). These 
Frenchmen reached the coast 
of Florida, and turning north- 
ward came to a haven which 
they called Port Royal. Here 
they built a fort in what is 
now South Carolina. Leaving thirty men to hold it, Ribaut 
sailed for France. Famine, homesickness, ignorance of life in 
a wilderness, soon brought the colony to ruin. Unable to en- 
dure their hardships longer, the colonists built a crazy boat,^ 
put to sea, and when off the French coast were rescued by an 
English vessel. 

The French in Florida. — Two years later (1564) Coligny 
tried again, and sent forth a colony under Laudonniere 

1 The forests supplied the trees for timbers. The seams were calked with 
the moss tliat hung in clusters from the branches, and then smeared with pitch' 
from the pines. The Indians made them a rude sort of rope for cordage, and 
for sails they sewed together bedding and shirts. On the voyage home they ate 
their shoes and leather jerkins. Read Kirk Munroe's Flamingo Feather. 

32 



FRANCE ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA 



33 




Fort Caroline. From an old print. 



C-o-clo-ne-air'). It reached the coast of Florida, and a few 
miles up the St. Johns River built a fort called Caroline in 
honor of the French 
King Charles. The next t 
3^ear there came more 
colonists under Ribaut.^ 

The Spaniards found 
St. Augustine. — Now it 
so happened that just at 
this time a Spaniard 
named Menendez (^mii- 
nen'deth) had obtained 
leave to conquer and set- 
tle Florida. Before he 
could set off, news came 
to Spain that the French were on the St. Johns River, and 
]\Ienendez was sent with troops to drive them out. He landed 
in Florida in 15(35 and built a fort which was the beginning of 
St. Augustine, the first permanent settlement on the mainland 
part of the United States. Ribaut at once sailed to attack it. 
But while he was at sea Menendez marched overland, took Fort 
Caroline, and put to death every man there, save a few who 
made good their escape. ^ 

Spain holds America. — iNIore than seventy years had now 
passed since Columbus made his great voyage of discovery. 
Yet, save some Portuguese settlements in Brazil, the only Euro- 
pean colonies in America were Spanish. From St. Augustine, 

1 These men were adventurers, not true colonists, and little disposed to en- 
dure the toil, hunger, and drearine.ss of a life in the wilderness. It was not long, 
therefore, before the boldest of them seized two little vessels and sailed away to 
plunder Spaniards in the West Indies. Famine drove them into Havana, where 
to save their necks they told what was going on in Florida. Sixty-six mutineers 
presently seized two other ve.ssels and turned buccaneers. But the survivors 
were forced to return to Fort Caroline, where the leaders were put to death. 

2 Some of these and many others, who were shipwrecked with liibaut, after- 
ward surrendered and were killed. As Florida was considered Spanish ter- 
ritory the French had no right to settle there, so the French king did nothing 
more than protest to Spain. Read the story of the French in Florida as told by 
Parkman, in Pioneers of France in the New World, pp. 28-162. 

McM. BRIEF 3 



34 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 

around the Gulf of Mexico, down South America to the Strait 
of Magellan and up the west coast to California, save the 
foothold of Portugal, island and mainland belonged to Spain. 
And all the rest of North America she claimed. 

English Attacks on Spain in the New World. — So far in the 
sixteenth century England had taken little or no part in the 
work of discovery, exploration, and settlement. Her fisher- 
men came to the Banks of Newfoundland; but not till 1562, 
in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, did the contact of England 
with the New World really begin. Then it was that Sir John 
Hawkins, one of England's great "sea kings," went to Africa, 
loaded his ships with negroes, sold them to planters in Haiti, 
and came home with hides and pearls. Such trade for one not 
a Spaniard was against the law of Spain. But Hawkins cared 
not, and came again and again. When foul weather drove 
him into a Mexican port, the Spaniards sank most of his sliips, 
but Hawkins escaped with two vessels, in one of which was 
Francis Drake. ^ 

Smarting under defeat, Drake resolved to be avenged. Fit- 
ting out a little squadron at his own cost, without leave of the 
queen, Drake (1572) sailed to the Caribbean Sea, plundered 
Spanish towns along the coast, captured Spanish ships, and 
went home loaded with gold, silver, and merchandise. ^ 

Drake sails around the Globe. — During this raid on the 
Spanish coast Drake marched across the Isthmus of Panama 
and looked down upon Balboa's great South Sea. As he looked, 
he resolved to sail on it, and in 1577 left England with five 
ships on what proved to be the greatest voyage since that 
of Magellan. He crossed the Atlantic, sailed down the coast of 
South America, and entered the Strait of ^Magellan. There 
four ships deserted, but Drake went on alone up the west coast, 
plundering towns and capturing Spanish vessels. To return 

1 Read Fiske's Old Virginia and her Neighbours, Vol. I, pp. 19-20. 

'•^ Read Kingsley's Westicard Ho ! and Barnes's Drake and his Yeomen. 
On returning to England in 1573, Drake reached Plymouth on a Sunday, 
during church time. So great was the excitement that the people left the 
church during the sermon, in order to get sight of him. 



ENGLAND ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA 



35 



the way he came would have been dangerous, for Spanish cruis- 
ers lay in wait. Drake, therefore, went on up the coast in 
search of a passage through the continent 
to the Atlantic. Coasting as far as south- 
ern Oregon and finding no passage, Drake 
turned southward, entered a harbor, re- 
paired his ship, and then started westward 
across the Pacific. He touched at the 
Phili]3pines, visited the Spice Islands, came 
home by way of the Cape of Good Hope, 
and won the glory of being the first Eng- 
lishman to sail around the globe. ^ 

The English in the Far North. — While 
Drake was on his voyage around the 
world, Martin Frob'isher discovered Hud- 
son Strait,^ and Sir Humphrey Gilbert 
failed in an attempt to plant a colony 
somewhere in America. The failure was 
disheartening. But the return of Drake laden with spoil 
aroused new interest in America, and (in 1583) Gilbert led 
a colony to Newfoundland. Disaster after disaster overtook 
him, and while he was on his way home with two vessels 
(all that were left of five), one with Gilbert on board went 
down at sea.^ 

The English on Roanoke Island. — The work of colonization 
then passed to Sir Walter Raleigh, a half-brother of Gilbert. 
He began by sending out a party of explorers who sailed along 
the coast of North Carolina and brought back such a glowing 




Drake's astrolabe. 

Now in Greenwich Hospital, 
London. 



1 On his return in 1580 Queen Elizabeth knighted Drake on his own deck. 
A chair made from the timbers of his vessel (the Golden Hind) is now at Oxford. 
Read Fiske's Old Virginia and her Neighbours, Vol. I, pp. 20-28. 

- In 1576 Frobisher, when in search of a northwest passage to China, made 
his way through Arctic ice to the bay which now bears his name. Two more 
voyages were made to the far north in search of gold. 

3 The ships were overtaken off the Azores by a furious gale. Gilbert's ves- 
sel was a very little one, so he was urged to come aboard his larger consort ; 
but he refused to desert his companions, and replied, " Do not fear ; heaven is as 
near by water as by land." 



36 



DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 



description of the country that the queen named it Virginia 
and Raleigh chose it for the site of a colony. ^ 

In 1585, accordingly, a party of men commanded by Ralph 
Lane were landed on Roanoke Island (map, p. 44). But the 
site proved to be ill chosen, and the Indians were hostile. The 
colonists were poorly fitted to live in a wilderness, and were 
almost starving when Drake, who stopped at Roanoke (1586) to 
see how they were getting on, carried them back to England.^ 

The Lost Colony. — Not long after Drake sailed away with 
the colonists, a party of recruits arrived with supplies. Find- 
ing the island deserted, fifteen men remained 
to hold the place in the queen's name, and 
the rest returned to England. Not dis- 
heartened by these reverses, Raleigh sum- 
moned some men of influence to his aid, 
and (in 1587) sent out a third party of set- 
tlers, both men and women, in charge of 
John White. This party was to stop at 
Roanoke Island, pick up the fifteen men 
there, and then go on to Chesapeake Bay. 
But for some reason the settlers were left 
on the island by the convoy, and there they 
Raleigh's pipes. were forced to stay.^ 

1 Queen Elizabeth had declared she would recognize no Spanish claim to 
American territory not founded on discovery and settlement. Raleigh was author- 
ized, therefore, to hold by homage heathen lands, not actually possessed and 
inhabited by Christian people, which he might discover within the next six years. 

2 The colonists took home some tobacco, which at that time was greatly 
pi'ized in England. When Columbus reached the island of Cuba in 1492, two of 
his followers, sent on an errand into the interior, met natives who rolled certain 
dried leaves into tubes, and, lighting one end with a firebrand, drew the smoke 
into their bodies and puffed it out. This was the first time that Europeans had 
seen cigars smoked. The Spaniards carried tobacco to Europe, and its use spread 
rapidly. There is a story to the effect that a servant entering a room one morn- 
ing and seeing smoke issuing from Raleigh's mouth, thought he was on fire and 
dashed water in his face. 

3 On Roanoke Island, August 18, 1587, a girl was born and named Virginia. 
She was the granddaughter of Governor White and the daughter of Eleanor and 
Ananias Dare, and the first child of English parents born on the soil of what is 
now the United States. 




ENGLAND ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA 



37 




Indians in a dugout canoe. 
Part of adrawing by Jolin White. 



White very soon went 

back to England for help, in 

the only ship the colonists 

had. War with Spain pre- 
vented his return for several 

years, and then only the 

ruins of the settlement 

were found on the island.^ 

Spain attacks England. — The war which prevented White 

from prouiptly returning to Roanoke began in 1585. The next 

year, with twenty-five ships, Drake 
attacked the possessions of Spain in 
America, and burned and plundered 
several towns. In 1587 he "singed the 
beard of the kiug of Spain " by burn- 
ing a hundred vessels in the harbor of 
the Spanish city of Cadiz. 

Enraged by these defeats, King 
Pliilip II of Spain determined to in- 
vade England and destroy that nest 
of sea rovers. A great fleet known as 
tlie Invincible Armada, carrying thirty 
thousand men, was assembled and 
in 1588 swept into the English 
Channel. There the English, led 
by Raleigh,^ Drake, Frobisher, Haw- 

1 The settlers had agreed that if they left Roanoke before White returned, 
the name of the place to which they went should be cut on a tree, and a cross 
added if they were in distress. When White returned the blockhouse was in 
ruins, and cut on a tree was the name of a near-by island. A storm prevented 
the ship going thither, and despite White's protests he was carried back to Eng- 
land. What became of the colony, no man knows. 

2 Raleigh was an important figure in p:nglish history for many years after 
the failure of his Roanoke colony. When Queen Elizabeth died (1C03), he 
fell into disfavor with her successor. King James I. He was falsely accused of 
treason and thrown into prison, where he remained during twelve years. There 
he wrote his History of the World. After a sliort period of liberty, Raleigh 
was beheaded. As he stood on the scaffold he asked for the ax, and said, " This 
is a sharp medicine, but a sound cure for all diseases." 




English dress, sixteenth century. 

Contcni[Mirnrv iiortrait of llalei^'-li and 
his son, bv Ziiccaro. 



38 DISCOVERY AND EXPLORATION 

kins, Lane, and all the other great sea kings, met the Armada, 
drove it into the North Sea, and captured, burned, and 
sank many of the ships. The rest fled around Scotland, on 
whose coast more were wrecked. Less than half the Armada 
returned to Spain. ^ 

The English explore the New England Coast. — The war 
lasted sixteen years longer (till 1604). Though it delayed, it 
did not stop, attempts at colonization. In 1602 Bartholomew 
Gosnold, with a colony of thirty-two men, sailed from England, 
saw the coast of Maine, turned southward, named Cape Cod and 
the Elizabeth Islands,^ and after a short stay went home. The 
next year Martin Pring came with two vessels on an explor- 
ing and trading voyage ; and in 1605 George Weymouth was 
sent out, visited the Kennebec River in Maine, and brought 
back a good report of the country. 

The Virginia Charter of i6o6. — Peace had now been made 
with Spain ; England had not been forced to stop her attempts 
to colonize in America ; the favorable reports of Gosnold, Pring, 
and Weymouth led to the belief that colonies could be success- 
fully planted ; and in 1606 King James I chartered two com- 
mercial companies to colonize Virginia, as the Atlantic seaboard 
region was called. 

To the first or London Company was granted the right to 
plant a colony anywhere along the coast between 34° and 41° 
of north latitude (between Cape Fear River and the Hudson). 
To the second or Plymouth Company was given the right to 
plant a colon}^ anywhere between 38° and 45° (between the Po- 
tomac River and the Bay of Fundy). Each company was to 
have a tract of land one hundred miles square — fifty miles 
along the coast each way from the first settlement and one 
hundred miles inland ; and to prevent overlapping, it was pro- 

1 Read Fiske's Old Virginia and her NeAghbours, Vol. I, pp. 33-38. 

2 The Elizabeth Islands are close to the south coast of Massachusetts. A 
few miles farther south Gosnold found another small island which he named 
Marthas Vineyard. Later explorers by mistake shifted the name Marthas Vine- 
yard to a large island near by, and the little island which Gosnold found is now 
called No Mans Land (map, p. 59). 



ENGLAND ATTEMPTS TO SETTLE AMERICA 



39 



vided that the company last to settle should not locate within 
one hundred miles of the other company's settlement. 

The Colony on the 
Kennebec. — The char- 
t e r having been 
granted, each company 
set about securing emi- 
grants. To get them 
was not difficult, for in 
England at that day 
there were many people 
whose condition was 
so desperate that they 
were glad to seek a 
new home beyond the 




SCALE OF MILES 
100 200 300 



Virginia. 



sea.^ In a few months, 
therefore, the Ply mo-uth 
Company sent out its 
first party of colonists; but the ship was seized by the Span- 
iards. The next year (1607) the company sent out one hun- 
dred or more settlers in two ships. They landed in August at 
the mouth of the Kennebec River, and built a fort, a church, a 
storehouse, and fifteen log cabins. These men were wholly 
unfit for life in a wilderness, and in December about half went 
home in the ships in which they came. The others passed a 
dismal winter, and when a relief ship arrived in the spring, all 
went back, and the Plymouth Company's attempt to colonize 
ended in failure. 

The Colony on the James. — Meanwhile another band of 
Englishmen (one hundred and forty-three in number) had been 
sent out by the London Company to found a colony in what 
is now Virginia. They set sail in December, 1606, in three 

1 The industrial condition of England was changing. The end of the long 
war with Spain had thrown thousands of soldiers out of employment ; the turn- 
ing of plow land into sheep farms left thousands of laborers witliout work ; 
manufactures were still in too primitive a state to provide employment for all 
who needed it. 



40 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 



ships under Captain Newport, and in April, 1607, reached the 
entrance of Chesapeake Bay. Sailing westward across the bay, 
the ships entered a river which was named the James in honor 

of the king, and on the 
bank of tliis river the 
party landed and founded 
Jamestown (map, p. 44). 
With this event began the 
permanent occupation of 
American soil by English- 
men. At this time, more 
than a hundred years after 
the voyages of Columbus, 
the only other European 
settlers on the Atlantic 
coast of the United States 
were the Spaniards in 
Florida. 



SUMMARY 

1. The Huguenots tried to 
found French colonies on the 
coast of South Carolina (1562) 
and of Florida (1564) ; but both 
attempts failed. 

2. In 1565 all America, save 
Brazil, either was in Spanish 




Ruins at Jamestown. 

Cluii'oh tower as it looks to-day. 



hands, or was claimed by Spain and not yet occupied. 

3. During the next twenty years English sailors began to fight Span- 
iards, Drake sailed around the globe, Frobisher explored the far noi'tli, and 
Sir Humphrey Gilbert attempted to plant a colony in Newfoundland. 

4. Gilbert's half-brother Raleigh then took up the work of colonization, 
but his attempts to plant a colony at Roanoke Island ended in failure. 

5. The attacks of English buccaneers on the American colonies of Spain 
led to a war (158.5-1604), in which the most memorable event was the 
defeat of the Spanish Armada. 

6. After the war two companies were chartered to plant English colo- 
nies in America. The Plymouth Company's colony was a failure, but in 
1607 the London Company founded Jamestown. 



CHAPTER IV 



THE ENGLISH ON THE CHESAPEAKE 



Caf< 5MITH [eiCapttue to ike BASHAW o 

NALBR1T5 ,n TARTARIA Cfiap 12 ' 




Life at Jamestown. — The colonists who landed at James- 
town in 1607 were all men. While some of them were building 
a fort, Captain Newport, 
with Captain John Smith 
and others, explored the 
James River and visited 
the Powhatan, chief of a 
neighboring tribe of Ind- 
ians. This done, New- 
port returned to England 
(June, 1607) with his 
three ships, leaving one 
hundred and five colo- 
nists to begin a struggle 
for life. Bad water, fever, 
hard labor, the intense 
heat of an American summer, and the scarcity of food caused 
such sickness that by September more than half the colonists 
were dead.^ Indeed, had it not been for Smith, who got corn 
from the Indians and directed affairs in general, the fate of 
Jamestown might have been that of Roanoke. ^ As it was, but 

1 Read Fiske's Old Virginia and her Nfighbonrs, Vol. I, pp. 96-98. 

- Captain John Smith was born in England in 1580. At an early age he was 
a soldier in France and in the Netherlands ; then after a short stay in England 
he set off to fight the Turks. In France he was robbed and left for dead, but 
reached Marseilles and joined a party of pilgrims bound to the Levant. During 
a violent storm the pilgrims, believing he had caused it, threw him into the sea. 
But he swam to an island, and after many adventures was made a captain in 
the Venetian army. The Turks captured him and sold him into slavery, but he 
killed his master, escaped to a Russian fortress, made his way through Germany, 

41 



Smith in slavery. 
Picture in one of liis books. 



42 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 




forty were alive when Newport returned in January, 1608, with 
the " first supply " of one hundred and twenty men. 

The Company's Orders. — Newport was ordered to bring 
back a cargo. So while some of the colonists cut down cedar 
and black walnut trees and made clapboards, others loaded the 

ship with glittering sand which they 
thought was gold dust. These la- 
bors drew the men away from agri- 
culture, and only four acres were 
planted with corn. 

In September Newport was back 
again with the "second supply" of 
seventy persons; two of them were 
women. This time he was ordered to 
crown the Powhatan, and to find a gold 
mine, discover a passage to the South 
Sea, or find Raleigh's lost colony. 
Smith laughed at these orders. But 
they had to be obeyed ; so several 
parties went southward in search of the 
lost colony, but found it not; Newport went westward beyond 
the falls of the James in search of the passage; and the Pow- 
hatan was duly crowned and dressed in a crimson robe.^ 

France, Spain, and Morocco, and reached England in time to go out with 
the London Company's colony. His career in Virginia was as adventurous 
as in the Old World. While exploring the Chickahominy River he and 
his companions were taken by the Indians. Let they should kill him at 
once Smith showed them a pocket compass with its quivering needle always 
pointing north. They could see, but could not touch it because of the glass. 
Supposing him a wizard, they took him to the Powhatan. According to 
Smith's account two stones were brought and Smith's head laid upon them, 
while warriors, club in hand, stood near by to beat out his brains. But 
suddenly the chief's little daughter, Pocahontas, rushed in and laid her head on 
Smith's to shield him. He was given his life and sent back to Jamestoven. 
1 Smith and Newport visited the old chief at his village of Werowocomoco, 
took off the Powhatan's raccoon-skin coat, and put on the crimson robe. When 
they told him to kneel, he refused. Two men thereupon seized him by the 
shoulders and forced him to bend his knees, and the crown was clapped on 
his head. The Powhatan then took off his old moccasins and sent them, with 
his raccoon-skin coat, to his royal brother in London. 



Powhatan's coat. 

Now in a inuseuin at Oxford. 



THE ENGLISH ON THE CHESAPEAKE 43 

No gold mine could be found, so Newport sailed for England 
with a cargo of pitch, tar, and clapboards. 

Smith rules the Colony. — By this time Smith had become 
presitlent of the council for the government of the colony. He 
decreed that those who did not work should not eat; and by 
spring his men had dug a well, shingled the church, put u[) 
twenty cabins, and cleared and planted forty acres of corn. Yet, 
despite all he could do, the colony was on the verge of ruin 
when in August, 1609, seven ships landed some three hundred 
men, women, and children known as the ''third supply." ^ 

Jamestown Abandoned. — And now matters went from bad 
to worse. The leaders quarreled; Smith was injured and had 
to go back to England; the Indians became hostile; food be- 
came scarce; and when at last neither corn nor roots could be 
had, the colonists began to suffer the horrors of famine. Dur- 
ing that awful winter, long known as "-the starving time," 
cold, famine, and the Indians swept away more than four 
hundred. When Newport arrived in ]May, 1610, only sixty 
famishing creatures inhabited Jamestown. To continue the 
colony seemed hopeless ; and going on board the ships (June, 
1610), the colonists set sail for England and had gone well 
down the James when the}' met Lord Delaware with three 
well-provisioned ships coming up.^ 

Jamestown Resettled. — Lord Delaware had come out as 
governor under a new charter granted to the London Company 
in 1609. This is of interest because it gave to the colony an 
immense domain of which we shall hear more after Virgfinia 
became a state. This domain extended from Point Comfort, 
two hundred miles up and two hundred miles down the coast, 
and then " up into the land throughout from sea to sea, west 
and northwest." 

1 They were part of a body of some five hundred in nine ships which left 
England in June. On the way over a storm scattered the fleet ; one ship was 
lost, and another bearing the leaders of the expedition was wrecked on the 
Bermudas. The shipwrecked colonists spent ten months building two little 
vessels, in which they reached Jamestown in May, 1610. 

2 Read Fiske's Old Virginia and her Xeighboiirs, Vol. I, pp. 152-155. 



44 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 



After the meeting between the departing settlers and the 
newcomers under Delaware, the whole band returned to James- 
town and began once more the struggle for existence. 

Prosperity begins. — Delaware, who soon went back to Eng- 
land, left Sir Thomas Dale in command, and under him the 

colony began to prosper. 




O ^,,:^ ';i -c. Charles k^ 

■■ -y ..u'.JIC.Hattera 
> ^-^^"/ &. 

SCALE OF MILES 
M R 




Hitherto the colonists had 
lived as communists. The 
company owned all the land, 
and whatever food was raised 
was put into the public gran- 
ary to be divided among the 
settlers, share and share alike. 
Dale changed this system, 
and the old planters were 
given land to cultivate for 
themselves. The effect was 
magical. JNIen who were lazy 
when toiling as servants of 
the company, become indus- 
trious when laboring for 
themselves, and prosperity 
began in earnest. 

More settlers soon arrived 
with a number of cows, goats, 
and oxen, and the little col- 
Virginia (from 1609 to 1624). Qj^^, ijgg.^,^ ^Q expand. When 

Dale's term as acting governor ended in 1616, Virginia con- , 
tained six little settlements besides Jamestown. The next 
governor, Yeardley, introduced the cultivation of tobacco, which 
was now much used in Europe and commanded a high price. 

The First Representative Assembly. — Yeardley was suc- 
ceeded (1617 ) by Argall, who for two years ruled Virginia with a 
rod of iron. So harsh was his rule that the company was forced to 
recall him and send back Yeardley. Yeardley came with instruc- 
tions to summon a general assembly, and in July, 1619, the first 



THE EXGLISH ON THE CHESAPEAKE 45 

legislative body in America met in the little church at James- 
town ; eleven boroughs were represented. Each sent two bur- 
gesses, as they were called, and these twenty-two men made 
the first House of Burgesses, and had power to enact laws 
for the colony.^ 

Slavery Introduced. — Another event which makes 1019 a 
memorable year in our history was tlie arrival at Jamestown of 
a Dutch ship with a cargo of African negroes for sale. Twenty 
were bought, and tlie institution of negro slavery was planted 
in Virginia. This seemed quite proper, for there were then in 
the colony many white slaves, or bond servants — men bound 
to service for a term of years. Tlie difference between one of 
these and an African negro slave was that the white man served 
for a sliort time, and the neo-ro durinof his life.'-^ 

A Cargo of Maids. — Yet another event which makes 1619 a 
notable year in Virginian history was the arrival of a ship with 
ninety young women sent out by the company to become wives 
of tlie settlers. The early comers to Virginia had been ''ad- 
venturers,"' that is, men seeking to better their fortunes, not in- 
tending to live and die in Virginia, but hoping to return to 
England in a few years rich, or at least prosperous. That the 
colony ^^■ith such a shifting population could not prosper AAas 
certain. Virginia needed homes. The mass of the settlers were 
unmarried, and the company very wisely determined to supply 

1 The governor, the council, and the House of Burgesses constituted the 
General Assembly. Any act of the Assembly might be vetoed by the governor, 
and no law was valid till approved by the "general court" of the company at 
London. Neither was any law made by the company for the colony valid 
till approved by the Assembly. After 1600 the House of Burgesses consisted of 
two delegates from each county, with one from Jamestown. 

- For some years to come the slaves increased in numbers very slowly. So 
late as KiTl, when the population of Mrginia was 40.000, there were but 2000 
.slaves, while the bond servants numbered (5000. Some of these indentured 
servants, as they were called, were persons guilty of crime in England, who were 
sent over to Virginia and sold for a term of years as a punislunent. Others — 
the " redemptioners" — were men who, in order to pay for their passage to Vir- 
ginia, agreed to serve tlie owner or tiie captain of the ship for a certain time. 
On reaching Virginia the captain could sell them to the planters for the time 
specitied ; at the end of the time they became freemen. 



46 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 




The maids arrive in Virginia. 

them with wives. The ninety young women sent over in 1619,. 
and others sent later, were free to choose their own husbamls : 
but each man, on marrying one of them, had to pay one hundred 
and twenty pounds of tobacco for her passage to Virginia. 

The Charter Taken away. — For Virginia the future now 
looked bright. Her tobacco found ready sale in England at a 
large profit. The right to make her own laws gave promise of 
good government. The founding of home ties could not fail 
to produce increased energy on the part of the settlers. But 
trouble was brewing for the London Company. The king was 
quarreling with a part of his people, and the company was in 
the hands of his opponents. Looking upon it as a " seminary 
of sedition," King James secured (1624) the destruction of the 
charter, and Virginia became a royal province.^ 



1 That is, the unoccupied land became royal domain again, and the king 
appointed tlie governors and controlled the colony through a committee of his 
privy council. One unhappy result of the downfall of the London Company 



THE ENGLISH ON THE CHESAPEAKE 47 

State of the Colony in 1624. — The colony of Virginia when 
deprived of its charter was a little community of some four 
thousand souls, scattered in plantations on and near the James 
River. Let us go back to those times and visit one of the 
plantations. The home of the planter is a wooden house with 
rough-hewn beams and unplaned boards, surrounded by a high 
stockade. Near by are the farm buildings and the cabins of his 
bond servants. His books, his furniture, his clothing and that 
of his family, have all come from England. So also have the 
farming implements and very likely the greater part of his 
cows and pigs. On his land are fields of wheat and barley and 
Indian corn ; but the chief crop is tobacco. ^ 

Effects of Tobacco Planting. — As time passed and the Vir- 
ginians found that the tobacco always brought a good price in 
England, they made it more and more the chief crop. This 
powerfully affected the whole character of the colony. It 
drew to Virginia a better class of settlers, who came over to 
grow rich as planters. It led the people to live almost ex- 
clusively on plantations, and prevented the growth of large 
towns. Tobacco became the currency of the colony, and sala- 
ries, wages, and debts were paid, and taxes levied, and wealth 
and income estimated, in pounds of tobacco. 

Few Roads in Virginia. — As there were few towns,^ so there 
were few roads. The great plantations lay along the river 

was the defeat of a plan for establishing schools in Virginia. As early as 1621 
some funds were raised for " a public free school," in Charles City. A tract of 
land was also set apart in the city of Henricus for a college, and a rector, or 
president, was sent out to start it. But he was killed by the Indians in 1622, 
and before the company had found a successor the charter was destroyed. 
Virginia's first college — William and Mary — was established at Williamsburg 
in 1693. 

1 Head the description of early Virginia in J. E. Cooke's Virginia (American 
Commonwealths Series), pp. 141-157; or Stories of the Old Dominion; or 
Fiske's Old Virginia and her Neighbours, Vol. I, pp. 223-232. 

2 Jamestown was long the chief town of Virginia ; but in its best days the 
houses did not number more than 75 or 80, and the population was not more 
than 250. In 1670 the church, the House of Burgesses, and the dwellings 
were burned during Bacon's Rebellion (p. 95). In 1679 the Burgesses ordered 
Jamestown "to be rebuilt and to be the metropolis of Virginia" ; but in 1698 
the House of Burgesses was again burned, and in 1699 Williamsburg became the 



48 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 



banks. It was easy, therefore, for a planter to go on visits of 
business or pleasure in a sailboat or in a barge rowed by bis 

servants. The fine 
rivers and the loca- 
tion of the plantations 
along their banks en- 
abled each planter to 
have his own wharf, 
to which came ships 
from England laden 
with -tables, chairs, 
cutlery, tools, rich 
silks, and cloth,every- 
thing the planter 
needed for his house, 
his family, his ser- 
vants, and his plan- 
tation, all to be paid 
for with casks of to- 
bacco. 

Governor Berkeley. 
— Despite the change 
from rule by the 
company to rule by the king, Virginia grew and prospered. 
When Sir William Berkeley came over as governor (in 1642), 
her English population was nearly fifteen thousand and her slaves 
three hundred, and many of her planters were men of much 
wealth. Berkeley's first term as governor (1642-1652) covered 
the period of the Civil War in England. 

Civil War in England. — When King James died (in 1625) 
he was succeeded by Charles I, under whom the old quarrel 
between the king ancT the people, which had caused the down- 
seat of government. The ruined church tower (p. 40) Is the only structure 
still standing in Jamestown ; but remains of the ancient graveyard, of a mansion 
built on the foundations of the old House of Burgesses, and some foundations of 
dwellings may also be seen. The site is cared for by the Association for the 
Preservation of Virginia Antiquities. 




Copi/iHjhl, lMlJ,ii J!. A La 

Foundations at Jamestown. 



THE ENGLISH ON THE CHESAPEAKE 49 

fall of the London Company, was pushed into civil war. In 
1642 Charles I took the field, raised the royal standard, and 
called all loyal subjects to its defense. The Parliament of 
England likewise raised an army, and after varying fortunes 
the king was defeated, captured, tried for high treason, found 
guilty, and beheaded (1649). England then became a republic, 
called the Commonwealth. 

The Cavaliers. — While the Civil War was raging in Eng- 
land, Virginia (lai-gely l)ecause of the influence of Governor 
Berkeley) remained loyal to the king. As the war went on 
and the defeats of the royal army were followed by the capture 
of the king, numbers of his friends, the Cavaliers, fled to 
Virginia. After Charles I was beheaded, more than three 
hundred of the nobility, gentry, and clergy of England came 
over in one year. No wonder, then, that the General As- 
sembly recognized the dead king's son as King Charles II, and 
made it treason to doubt his right to the throne. Because of 
this support of the royal cause, Parliament punished Virginia 
by cuttiug off her trade, and ordei'ed that steps be taken to 
reduce her to submission. A fleet was accordingly dispatched, 
reached Virginia early in 1652, and forced Berkeley to hand 
over the government to three Parliamentary commissioners. 
One of them was then elected governoi', and Virginia had al- 
most complete self-government till 1660, when England again 
became a kingdom, under Charles II. 

Maryland, the First Proprietary Colony. — When Virginia 
became crown property (1624), the king could do with it what 
he pleased. King Charles I accordingly cut off a piece and 
gave it to George Calvert, Lord Baltimore. ^ This Lord Balti- 



1 George Calvert was the son of a Yorkshire farmer, was educated at 
Oxford, and went to Parliament in 1604. Becoming a favorite of King James I, 
he was knighted in 1617, and two years later was made principal Secretary of 
State. He became a Roman Catholic, although Catholics were then bitterly 
persecuted in England. Just before the king died, he resigned office, and 
received the title of Lord Baltimore, the name referring to a town in Ireland. 
Finding all public offices closed to him because he was a Catholic, Baltimore 
resolved to seek a home in America. 

McM. BRIEF 4 



50 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 







SCALE OF MILES 
6 20 4U 60 



-yj^rfrlk V 



Maryland by the original patent. 



more was a Catholic who had tried in vain to found a settle- 
ment in Newfoundland. He died before the patent, or deed, 

was drawn for the land 
cut off from Virginia, so 
(1632) it was issued to 
his son Cecilius, the sec- 
ond Lord Baltimore. The 
province lay north of the 
Potomac River and was 
called Maryland. 

By the terms of the 
grant Lord Baltimore was 
to pay the king each year 
two arrowheads in token 
of homage, and as rent 
was to give the king one 
fifth of all the gold and silver mined. This done, he was pro- 
prietor of Maryland. He might coin money, grant titles, make 
war and peace, establish courts, appoint judges, and pardon 
criminals. But he was not allowed to tax the people without 
their consent. He had to summon a legislature to assist him 
in making laws, but the laws Avhen made did not need to be 
sent to the king for approval. 

The First Settlers. — The first settlement was made by a 
company of about twenty gentlemen and three hundred arti- 
sans and laborers. They were led and accompanied by two of 
Lord Baltiipore's brothers, and by two Catholic priests. They 
came over in 1634 in two ships, the Ark and the Dove, and not 
far from the mouth of the Potomac founded St. Marys. In Feb- 
ruary, 1635, they held their first Assembly. To it came all 
freemen, both landholders and artisans, and by them a body of 
laws was framed and sent to the proprietor (Lord Baltimore) 
for approval. 

Self-government begun. — This was refused, and in its place 
the proprietor sent over a code of laws, which the Assembly in 
its turn rejected. The Assembly then went on and framed 



THE ENGLISH ON THE CHESAPEAKE 51 

another set of laws. Baltimore with rare good sense now 
yielded the point, and gave his brother authority to assent to 
the laws made by the people, but reserved the right to veto. 
Thus was free self-government established in Maryland. ^ 

Trouble with Claiborne. — Before Lord Baltimore obtained 
his grant, William Claiborne, of Virginia, had established an 
Indian trading post on Kent Island in Chesapeake Bay. This 
fell within the limits given to Maryland ; but Claiborne refused 
to acknowledge the authority of Baltimore, whereupon a vessel 
belonging to the Kent Island station was seized by the Mary- 
landers for trading without a license. Claiborne then sent an. 
armed boat with thirty men to capture any vessel belonging to 
St. Marys. This boat was itself captured, instead ; but another 
fight soon occurred, in which Claiborne's forces beat the Mary- 
landers. The struggle thus begun lasted for years.^ 

The Toleration Act. — The year 1649 is memorable for the 
passage of the Maryland Toleration Act, the first of its kind in 
our history. This provided that " no person or persons what- 
soever within this province, professing to believe in Jesus 
Christ, shall from henceforth be any ways troubled, molested, 
or discountenanced for, or in respect to, his or her religion." 

End of the Claiborne Trouble. — The nine years that fol- 
lowed foi-med a storniy period for Maryland. One of the par- 
liamentary commissioners to reduce Virginia to obedience 
(1652, p. 49) was our old friend Claiborne. He and the new 
governor of Virginia forced Baltimore's governor to resign, 

1 Baltimore ordered that any colonist who came in the Ark or Dove and 
brouo;ht five men with him sliould have 2000 acres of land, subject to an annual 
rent of 400 pounds of wheat. A settler who came in 1635 could have tiie same 
amount of land if he brought ten men, but had to pay 600 pounds of wheat a 
year as rent. Plantations of 1000 acres or more were manors, and Ihe lord of 
the manor could hold courts. 

'■^ Claiborne's London partners took possession of Kent Lsland, and acknowl- 
edged the authority of Baltimore ; but after the Civil War broke out in England, 
Claiborne joined forces with a half pirate named Ingle, and recovered the 
island. For two years Ingle and his crew lorded it over all Maryland, stealing 
corn, tobacco, cattle, and household goods. Not till 1646, when Calvert received 
aid from Virginia, was he able to drive out Claiborne and Ingle, and recover 
the province. 



52 



THE ENGLISH IxN AMERICA 



and set up a Protestant government which repealed the Tol- 
eration Act and disfranchised Roman Catholics. Baltimore 
bade his deposed governor resume office. A battle followed, 
the Protestant forces won, and an attempt was made to destroy 
the rights of Baltimore; but the English government sustained 
him, the Virginians were forced to submit, and the quarrel of 
more than twenty years' standing came to an end. Thenceforth 
Yirginia troubled Maryland no more. 

Growth of Maryland. — The population of the colony, mean- 
time, grew rapidly. Pamphlets describing the colony and 
telling how to emigrate and acquire land were circulated in 
England. Many of the first comers wrote home and brought 
out more men, and were thus enabled to take up more land. 
Emigrants who came with ten or twenty settlers were given 
manors or plantations. Such as came alone received farms. 

Most of the work on plan- 
tations was done by indented 
white servants, both convicts 
and redemptioners.^ Negro 
slavery existed in Maryland 
from the beginning, but slaves 
were not numerous till after 
1700. 

Food was abundant, for the 
rivers and bay abounded with 
Hand ioom.2 ^^^^^ ^^^^ ducks, oysters and 

crabs, and the woods were full of deer, turkeys, and wild 
pigeons. Wheat was not plentiful, but corn was abundant, 
and from it were made pone, hominy, and hoe-cakes. 

No Towns. — As everybody could get land and therefore 
lived on manors, plantations, or farms, there were practically 
no towns in Maryland. Even St. Marys, so late as 1678, was 

1 The redemptioners, when their time was out and they became freemen, 
received a set of tools, clothes, and a year's provisions from their former mas- 
ters, and fifty acres from the proprietor of the colony. 

2 On such looms skilled servants wove much of the cloth used on the planta- 
tion. Similar looms were used in all the colonies. 




THE ENGLISH ON THE CHESAPEAKE 53 

not really a town, but a string of some thirty houses straggling 
for five miles along the shore. The bay with its innumerable 
creeks, inlets, coves, and river mouths, afforded, fine water com- 
munication between the farms and plantations; and there were 
no roads. As in Virginia, there was no need of shipping ports. 
Vessels came direct to manor or plantation wharf, and ex- 
changed English goods for tobacco or corn. Such farmers or 
planters as had no water communication packed their tobacco 
in a hogshead, with an axle through it, and with an ox or a horse 
in a pair of shafts, or with a party of negro slaves or white ser- 
vants, rolled it to market. 



SUMMARY 

1. The struggle of the Jamestown colony for life was a desperate one. 
For two years it was preserved by Captain John Smith's skillful leadershiji, 
and the frequent reenforcements and supplies sent over by the London Com- 
pany ; but in 1610 the settlers started to leave the country. 

2. The arrival of Lord Delaware saved the colony. He brought out 
news of a new charter (1609) which greatly extended the domain of the 
company. 

o. The settlers were now given land of their own, tobacco was grown, 
more settlements were planted, and prosperity began. 

4. In 1619 slavery was introduced; a shipload of young women ar- 
rived; and a representative government was established. 

5. In 1624 Virginia became a royal colony. 

6. During the Civil War in England many Cavaliers came to Virginia. 

7. King Charles T cut off a part of Virginia to make (16.32) the pro- 
prietary colony of Maryland. The new province was given to Lord Balti- 
more, who founded (16o4) a colony at St. Marys. 

8. Claiborne, a Virginian, denied the authority of Baltimore, and kept 
up a struggle against liini for many years. 

9. In both Maryland and Virginia the people lived on large planta- 
tions, and there were few towns. Travel was mostly by water, and there 
were no good roads. 



CHAPTER V 



THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 



New England Named. — While the London Company was 
phmting its C(jlony on the James River, the Plymouth Company 
sought to retrieve its failure on the Kennebec (p. 39). In 1614 




Smith's map of the New England coast. 

Captain John Smith, who had returned to England from James- 
town, was sent over with two ships to explore. He made a 
map of the coast from Maine to Cape Cod,i and called the 

1 On his map Smith gave to Cape Ann, Cape Elizabeth, Charles River, and 
Plymouth the names they still retain. Cape Cod he called Cape James. 

54 



THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 



55 



country New England. The next year Smith led out a colony ; 
but a French fleet took hira prisoner, no settlement was made, 
and five years passed before the first permanent Englisli colony 
was planted in the Plymouth Company's grant — by the 
Separatists. 

The Separatists. — To understand who these people were, 
it must be remembered that during the reign of Queen Eliza- 
beth the Protestant Episcopal Church was the Established 
Church of England, and that severe laws were j)assed to force 
all the people to attend its services. But a sect arose Avhich 
wished to '' purify " the church b}^ abolishing certain forms and 
ceremonies. Tliese people were called Puritans,^ and were 
divided into two sects : 

1. Those Puritans who wished to purify the Church of 
England while they remained members of it. 

2. The Independents, or Separatists, who wished to sepa- 
rate from that church and worship God in 
their own way. 

The Separatists were cruelly persecuted 
during Queen Elizabeth's reign, and after- 
ward. One band of them fled to Holland (in 
1608), where they found peace; but time 
passed and it became necessary for them to 
decide whether they should stay in Holland 
and become Dutch, or find a home in some 
land where they might continue to remain 
Englishmen. They decided to leave Hol- 
land, formed a company, and finally obtained 
leave from the London Company to settle 
near the mouth of the Delaware River. 

Voyage of the Mayflower. — Led by Brewster, Bradford, 
and Standish, a party of Pilgrims sailed from Holland in July, 




Brewster's chair. 

Now in Pilgrim Hull, 
Plyuioutli. 



1 The Puritans were important in history for many years. Most of the 
English people who quarreled and fought with King James and King Charles 
were Puritans. In Maryland it was a Puritan army that for a time overthrew 
Lord Baltimore's government (p. 52). 



56 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

1620, in the ship Speedivell ; were joined in England by a party 
from London in the Mayfloiver ; and in August both vessels 
put to sea. But the Speedwell proved unseavvorthy, and all 
put back to Plymouth in England, where some gave up the 
voyage. One hundred and two held fast to their purpose, and 
in September set sail in the 3Iayflower. The voyage was long 
and stormy, and November came before they sighted a sandy 
coast far to the northeastward of the Delaware. For a while 
they strove hard to go southward ; but adverse winds drove 
them back, and the}' dropped anchor in Cape Cod Bay.^ 

The Landing. — The land here was within the territory of 
the Plymouth Company. The Pilgrims, however, decided to 
stay and get leave to settle, but this decision displeased some 
of them. A meeting, therefore, was held in the ship's cabin 
(November 21, 1620), and the " Mayflower compact," binding 
all who signed it to obey such government as might be estab- 
lished, was drawn up and signed by forty-one of the sixty-live 
men on tlie vessel. 

This done, the work of choosing a site for their homes began, 
and for several weeks little parties explored the coast before 
one of them entered a harbor and selected a spot which John 
Smith had named Plymouth. ^ To this harbor the Mayjiower 

1 Read Fiske's Beginnings of N'ew England, pp. 79-82. 

2 The little boat or shallop in which they intended to sail along the coast 
needed to be repaired, and two weeks passed before it was ready. Meantime a 
party protected by steel caps and corselets went ashore to explore the country. 
A few Indians were seen in the distance, but they fled as the Pilgrims ap- 
proached. In the ruins of a hut were found some corn and an iron kettle that 
had once belonged to a European ship. The corn they carried away in the 
kettle, to use as seed in the spring. Other exploring parties, after trips in the 
shallop, pushed on over hill- and through valleys covered deep with snow, and 
found more deserted houses, corn, and many graves ; for a pestilence had lately 
swept off the Indian population. On the last exploring voyage, the waves ran 
so high that the rudder was carried away and the explorers steered with an oar. 
As night came on, all sail was spread in hope of reaching shore before dark, but 
the mast broke and the sail went overboard. However, they floated to an island 
where they landed and spent the night. On the second day after, Monday, 
December 21, the explorers reached the mainland. On the beach, half in sand 
and half in water, was a large bowlder, and on this famous Plymouth Hock, it 
is said, the men stepped as they went ashore. 



THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 



57 



was brought, and while the men were busy putting up rude 
cabins, the women and chihlren remained on tlie ship. 

The First Winter was a dreadful one. The Pilgrims lived in 
crowded quarters, and tiie effects of the voyage and the sever- 
ity of the winter sent half of them to their graves before s})riiig. 
But the rest never faltered, and when the Mayjioiver returned 
to England in April, not one of the colonists went back in her. 
By the end of the first sum- 
mer a fort had been built 
on a hill, seven houses had 
been erected along a village 
street leading down from the 
fort to the harbor, six and 
twenty acres liad been cleared, 
and a bountiful harvest had 
been gathered. Other Pil- 
grims came over, the neigh- 
boring Indians kept the peace, 
and tiie colony was soon pros- 
perous. 

Plymouth, or the Old Col- 
ony. — As soon as the colony 
was planted, steps were taken 
to buy the land on which it 
stood. The old Plymouth 
Company (pp. 38, 39), organ- 
ized in 160(5, was succeeded 
in 1620 by a new corporation 
called the Council for New England, which received a grant of 
all the land in America between 40° and 48° of north latitude. 
From this Council for New England, therefore, the Pilgrims 
bought as much land as they needed. The king, however, re- 
fused to give them a charter, so the people of Plymouth, or the 
Old Colony as it came to be called, managed their own affairs 
in their own Avay for seventy years. At first the men assem- 
bled in town meeting, made laws, and elected officers. But 




Site of the fort at Plymouth. 

In tlie iiM " biirving srouixl,'" 



58 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 




Grave of Miles Standish, near Plymouth. 



when the growth of the colony made such meethigs unwieldy, 
representative government was set up, and each settlement sent 

two delegates to an as- 
sembly. 

The Salem Colony. — 
Shortly after 1020, at- 
tempts were made to 
plant other colonies in 
New England.! Most of 
tliem failed, but some 
of the colonists made a 
settlement called Naum- 
keag. Among those who 
watched these attempts 
with great interest was 
John White, a Puritan rector in England. He believed tluit 
the time had come for tlie Puritans to do what the Separatists 
had done. The quarrel between the king and the Puritans 
was then becoming serious, and the time seemed at hand when 
men who wished to worship God according to their conscience 
Avould have to seek a home in America. White accordingly 
began to urge the planting of a Puritan colony in New Eng- 
land. So well did he succeed that an association was formed, 
a great tract of land was obtained from the Council for New 
England, and in 1628 sixty men, led by John Endicott, settled 
at Naumkeag and changed its name to Salem, which means 
"peace." 

The Massachusetts Bay Colony. — The members of the as- 
sociation next secured from King Charles I a charter which 
made them a corporation, called this corporation The Governor 
and Company of Massachusetts Bay in New England, and gave 
it the right to govern colonies planted on its lands. More set- 
tlers with a great herd of cattle were now hurried to Salem, 
which thus became the largest colony in New England. 

1 As to the early settlements read Fiske's Beginnings of New England, 
pp. 90-95. 



THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 



59 



The Great Puritan Migration. — The same year (1629) that 
the charter was obtained, twelve leading Puritans signed an 
agreement to head an emigration to Massachusetts, provided the 
charter and government of 
the company were removed 
to New England. One of the 
signers was John Winthrop, 
and by him in 1630 nearly a 
thousand Puritans were led 
to Salem. Thence they soon 
removed to a little three- 





i^j MARTHAS V 

Vineyard ,_^^_^ 
no mans <v nantucket 

LAND 



The early New England colonies. 

hilled peninsula where they founded the town of Boston. More 
emigrants followed, and before the end of 1630 seventeen ships 
with nearly fifteen hundred Puritans reached Massachusetts. 
They settled at Boston, Charlestown, Roxbury, Dorchester, 
Watertown, and Cambridge. 



60 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

The charter was brought with them, the meetings of the 
company were now held in the colony, and so many of the colo- 
nists became members of the company that Massachusetts was 
practically self-governing. Before long a representative govern- 
ment was established in the colony, each town electing members 
of a legislature called the General Court. Every town also had 
its local government carried on by town meetings ; but only 
church members were allowed to vote. 

Maine and New Hampshire. — About two years after the 
founding of Plymouth, the Council for New England granted to 
^John Mason and Sir Ferdinando Gorges (gor'jess) a large tract 
of land between the rivers Merrimac and Kennebec. In it two 
settlements (now known as Portsmouth and Dover) were 
planted (1623) on the Piscat'aqua River, and some fishing sta- 
tions on the coast farther north. 

In 1629 the province was divided. Mason obtained a patent 
(or deed) for the country between the Merrimac and the Piscata- 

qua, and named it New 
Hampshire. Gorges re- 
ceived the counti:y be- 
tween the Piscataqua 
and the Kennebec, 
which was called Maine. 
English armor. Union wlth Massa- 

Novv in Kssex Hall. Salem. ChUSCttS. The tOWUS 

on the Piscataqua were small fishing and fur-trading stations, 
and after Mason died (1635) they were left to look out for 
themselves. With two other New Hampshire towns (Exeter 
and Hampton) they became almost independent republics. 
They set up their own governments, made their own laws, and 
owed allegiance to nobody save the king. Massachusetts, how- 
ever, claimed as her north boundary an east and west line three 
miles north of the source of the Merrimac River. i She there- 

1 The Massachusetts charter granted the land from withhi three miles south 
of the Charles River, to within three miles north of the Merrimac River, and all 
lands "of and within the breadth aforesaid" across the continent. 




THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 



61 



fore soon annexed the four New Hampshire towns, and gave 
them representation in her legishiture. 

If tlie chiim of Massachusetts was valid in the case of tlie 
New Hampshire towns, it was equally so for those of Maine. But 
it was not till 1652, alter Gorges was dead and the settlers in 
Maine (at York, Wells, and Kittery) had set up a government 
of tlieir own, that these towns were brought under her authority. 
Later (1677), Massachusetts bought up the claim of the heirs of 
Gorges, and came into possession of the wliole province. 
^ Rhode Island. — Among 
those who came to Salem in 
the early days of the Mas- 
sachusetts Bay Colony, was 
a Puritan minister named 
Roger Williams.^ But he had 
not been long in the colony 
when he said things which 
angered the rulers. He held 
tliat all religions should be 
tolerated ; that all laws re- 
quiring attendance at church 
should be repealed ; that the 
land belonged to the Indians 
and not to the king ; and that 
the settlers ought to buy it 
from the Indians and not 
from the king. For these 
and other sayings Williams 
was ordered back to England. 

But he fled to the woods, Roger Williams flees to the woods. 




1 Roger Williams was a Welshman, had been educated at Cambridge Univer- 
sity in England, and had some reputation as a preacher before coming to Boston. 
There he was welcomed as "a godly minister," and in time was called to a 
church in Salem ; but was soon forced out by the General Court. He then went 
to Plymouth, where he made the friendship of Mas'sasoit, chief of the Wani- 
pano'ags, and of Canon'icus, chief of the Narragansetts, and learned their lan- 
guage. In 16o3 he returned to Salem, and was again made pastor of a church. 



62 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

lived with the Indians for a winter, and in the following 
summer founded Providence (1636). ^ 

And now another disturber appeared in Boston in the per- 
son of Anne Hutchinson,^ and in a little while she and her fol- 
lowers were driven away. Some of them went to New Hamp- 
shire and founded Exeter (p. 60), while others with Anne 
herself went to Rhode Island in Narragansett Bay, and founded 
Portsmouth and Newport. 

For a time each of the little towns, Providence, Ports- 
mouth, and Newport, arranged its own affairs in its own way, 
but in 1643 Williams obtained from the English Parliament a 
charter which united them under the name of The Incorpora- 
tion of Providence Plantations on the Narragansett Bay in New 
England. 

Connecticut Founded. — Religious troubles did not end with 
the banishment of (Williams and Anne Hutchinson.) Many per- 
sons objected to the law forbidding any but church members 
to vote or hold office. So in 1635 and 1636 numbers of 
people, led by Thomas Hooker and others, went out (from 
Dorchester, Watertown, and Cambridge) and founded Windsor, 
Wethersfield, and Hartford in the Connecticut River valley. 
Later a party (from Roxbury) settled at Springfield. For a 
while these four towns were part of Massachusetts. But in 
1639 Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield adopted a consti- 
tution ^ and founded a republic wliich they called Connecticut. 

1 The fate of John Endicott shows to what a result Williams's teaching was 
supposed to lead. The flag of the Salem militia bore the red cross of St. George. 
Endicott regarded it as a symbol of popery, and one day publicly cut out the 
cross from the flag. This was thought a defiance of royal authority, and 
Endicott was declared incapable of holding ofiBce for a year. 

2 Anne Hutchinson held certain religious views on which she lectured to 
the women of Boston, and made so many converts that she split the church. 
Governor Vane favored her, but John Winthrop opposed her teachings, and 
when he became governor again she and her followers were ordered to quit the 
colony. 

3 The first written constitution made in our country, and the first in the his- 
tory of the world that was made by the people, for the people. Other towns 
were added later, among them Saybrook, which had grown up about an English 
fort built in 1635 at the mouth of the Connecticut. 



THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 



63 



The New Haven Colony. — As the quarrel between the 
Puritans and the king was by this time very bitter, the Puri- 
tans continued to come to New England in large numbers. 
Some of them made settlements on Long Island Sound. A 
large band under John 
Davenport founded New 
Haven (1638). Next (in 

1639) Milford and Guilford 
were started, and then (in 

1640) Stamford. In 1643 
the four towns joined in a 
sort of union and took the 
name New Haven Colony. 

The United Colonies of 
New England. — Thus 
there were planted in New 
England between 1620 and 
1643 five distinct colonies,^ 
namely: (1) Plymouth, 
or the Old Colony, ('2) 
Massachusetts Bay Col- 
ony, (3) Rhode Island, or 
Providence Plantations, 
(4) Connecticut, and (5) 
the New Haven Colony. 

In 1643 four of them — Plymouth, Massachusetts, Connecti- 
cut, and New Haven — united for defense against the Indians 
and the Dutch,^ and called their league "The United Colonies 
of New England." Tliis confederation maintained a successful 
existence for forty-one 3'ears. 

Effect of the Civil War in England. — When the New Eng- 
and confederation was formed, the king and the Puritans in 



-— ^* 




J 


7^' 


^ 




^^^HR^ Mil 


1 


^^^^^fi 


LI 


^ Br "^'^"^H 


r 


m 


i^ jtfli^/i j'Bffilll 


ig 


IS 



I'luiiied hi/ llumiliU) 



Puritan dress. 



1 Besides New Hampshire, which in 1043 was practically part of Massachu- 
setts ; and Maine, which became so a few years later. 

2 The Dutch, as we shall see in the next chapter, had planted a colony in 
the Hudson valley, and disputed English possession of the Connecticut. 



64 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

old England had come to blows, and civil war was raging there. 
During the next twenty years no more English colonies were 
planted in America. War at once stopped the stream of emi- 
grants. The Puritans in England remained to fight the king, 
and numbers went back from New England to join the Parlia- 
mentary army. For the next fifteen years population in New 
England increased slowly. 

Trade and Commerce. — Life in the New England colonies 
was very unlike that in Virginia. People dwelt in villages, 
cultivated small farms, and were largelv enjj-aofed in trade and 
commerce. They bartered corn and peas, woolen cloth, and 

wampum with the Indians for 
beaver skins, which they sent to 
England to pay for articles bought 
from the mother countr}^ They 
salted cod, dried alewives and bass, 
made boards and staves for hogs- 
heads, and sent all these to the 
West Indies to be exchanged for 
stone hand mill. sugur, molasses, and other products 

. Brought from England in 1680 and used for „ , . r.-ii ■> -i i • 

■ grinding flour. Now in Essex Hall, Ot the trOpiCS. i hcy built shipS 

Salem, Mass. -^^ ^j^^ scaports wherc lumber was 

cheap, and sold them abroad. They traded with Spain and 
Portugal, England, the Netherlands, and Virginia. 

Scarcity of Money. — The colonists lu-ought little money 
with them, and mucli of what they brought went back to Eng- 
land to pay for supplies. Buying and trading in New England, 
therefore, had to be done largely without gold or silver. 
Beaver skins and wampum, bushels of corn, produce, cattle, 
and even bullets were used as money and passed at rates fixed 
by law.^ In the hope of remedying the scarcity of money, the 
government of Massachusetts ordered that a mint should be set 

1 Students at Harvard College for many years paid their term bills with prod- 
uce, meat, and live stock. In 164!) a student paid his bill with "an old cow," 
and the steward of the college made separate credits for her hide, her "suet and 
inwards." On another occasion a goat was taken and valued at 30 shillings. 
Taxes also were paid in corn and cattle. 




THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 



65 




up, and in 1652 Spanish 

silver brought from the 

West Indies was melted 

and coined into Pine 

Tree currency.^ 

Manufactures. — That 

less gold and silver might 

go abroad for supplies, 

home manufactures were 

encouraged by gifts of 

money, by exemptions of 

property from taxation, 

and b}^ excusing Avork- 

men from military duty. 

Tlie cultivation of flax 

was encouraged, children Spinning wool. 

were taught to spin and weave, and glass works, salt works, 

and iron furnaces were started. 

On the farms utensils and furniture were 
generally made in the household. Almost 
everything was made of wood, as spoons, 
tankards, pails, firkins, hinges for cupboard 
and closet doors, latches, plows, and har- 
rows. Every boy learned to use his jack- 
knife, and could make brooms from birch 
trees, bowls and dippers and bottles from 
gourds, and butter paddles from red cherry. 
The women made soap and candles, carded 
wool, spun, wove, bleached or dyed the 
linen and woolen cloth, and made the gar- 
ments for the family. They knit mittens 
and stockings, made straw hats and bas- 




Yam reel.- 



In Essex Hall, Salem, 

Mass. 



1 The coins were the shilling, sixpence, threepence, and twopence. On one 
side of each coin was stamped a rude representation of a pine tree. 

2 On which the yarn was wound after it was spun. For a picture of the 
loom used in weaving, see p. 52. 

M< M. BRIEF 5 



66 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

kets, and plucked the feathers from live geese for beds and 
pillows. 

The Houses. — On the farms the houses of the early settlers 
were of logs, or were framed structures covered with shingles 
or clapboards. The tables, chairs, stools, and bedsteads were 
of the plainest sort, and were often made of puncheons, that is, 
of small tree trunks split in half. Sometimes the table would 
be a long board laid across two X supports. This was " the 
board," around which the family sat at meals. ^ In tlie better 
houses in the towns the furniture was of course very much finer. 

The Villages. — The center of village life was the meeting- 
house, or church. Near by was the house of the minister, the 
inn or tavern, and the dwellings of tlie inhabitants. In early 
times, if the village was on the frontier or exposed to Indian 
attack it was guarded by blockhouses surrounded by a high 
stockade. These " garrison houses," as they were called, were 
of stone or logs, with the second story projecting over the first, 
and had loopholes in place of windows. Most of them have 
long since disappeared, but a few still remain, turned into 
dwellings. Sometimes there were three or more blockhouses 
in a village, and to thase when the Indians were troublesome 
the farmers and their families came each night to sleep. 

Schools. — Among the acts passed by the General Court of 
Massachusetts in early days were several in regard to educa- 
tion. In 1636 four hundred pounds^ was voted for a public 
school. Two years later, John Harvard, a former minister, 
left his librar}^ and half his fortune to this school, and in grate- 
ful remembrance it was called Harvard College. Thus started, 

1 On the board were a saltcellar, wooden plates or trenchers, wooden or 
pewter spoons, and knives, but no china, no glass. Forks, it is said, were not 
known even in England till 1608, and the first ever seen in New England were 
at Governor Winthrop's table in 1G32. Those who wished a drink of water 
drank from a single wooden tankard passed around the table ; or they went to 
the bucket and used a gourd. 

2 This was a large sum in those days, and about as much as was raised by 
taxation in a year. The General Court which voted the money, it has been 
said, was " the first body in which the people, by their representatives, ever gave 
their own money to found a place of education." 



THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 



67 



the good work went on. Parents and masters were by law 
compelled to teach their children and apprentices to read Eng- 
lish, know the important laws, and repeat the orthodox cate- 
chism. Another law required '^.-- .i-?! 
every town of fifty families 
to maintain a school for at 
least six months a year, and 
every town of two hundred 
householders a primary and 
a grammar school, wherein 
Latin should be taught. 

Persecution of the Quakers. 
— Though the Puritans suf- 
fered persecution in the Old 
World, they had not learned 
to be tolerant. 







Fairbanks house, near Boston. 

As it looks to-da}'. IJuilt partly in Iti.JO. 

As we have seen, no man could vote in Massa- 
chusetts who was not a member of their church. They drove 
out Roger Williams and Anne Hutchinson, and again and 
again, in later times, banished, or fined, imprisoiied, and flogged 
men and women who wished to worship God in their own way. 
When two Quaker women arrived (1656), they were sent awa}^ 
and a sharp law was made against their sect.^ But in spite of 
all persecution, the Quakers kept coming. At last (in 1650- 
61) three men and a woman were hanged on Boston Common 
because they returned after having once been banished. Plym- 
outh and Connecticut also enacted laws against the Quakers.^ 

1 The Friends, or Quakers, lived pure, upright, simple lives. They protested 
against all forms and ceremonies, and against all church government. They re- 
fused to take any oaths, to use any titles, or to serve in war, because they 
thought these things wrong. They were much persecuted in England. 

2 Anotlier incident which gives us an insight into the character of these 
early times is the witchcraft delusion of 1692. Nearly everybody in those days 
believed in witchcraft, and several persons in the colonies had been put to 
death as witches. When, therefore, in 1692, the children of a Salem minister 
began to behave queerly and said that an Indian slave woman had bewitched 
them, they were believed. But the delusion did not stop with the chil<lren. In a 
few weeks scores of people in Salem were accusing their neighbors of all sorts of 
crimes and witch orgies. Many declared that the witches stuck pins into them. 
Twenty persons were put to death as witches before the craze came to an end. 



68 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

Connecticut Chartered (1662). — By this time the days of Pu- 
ritan rule in old England were over. In 1660 King Charles II 
was placed upon the throne of his father. Connecticut promptly 
acknowledged him as king, and sent her governor, the younger 
John Winthrop, to London to obtain a charter. He easily 
secured one (in 1662) which spread the authority of Connect- 
icut over the New Haven Colony,^ gave her a domain stretch- 
ing across the continent to the Pacific, and established a gov- 
ernment so liberal that the charter was kept in force till 1818. 
New Haven Colony for a time resisted ; but one by one the 
towns which formed the colony acknowledged the authority of 
Connecticut. 

The Second Charter of Rhode Island. — Rhode Island, like- 
wise, proclaimed the king and sought a new charter. When 
obtained (in 1663), it defined her boundaries, and provided for 
a form of government quite as liberal as that of Connecticut. 
It remained in force one hundred and seventy-nine years. 

The New Colonial Era. — From 1640 to 1660 the English col- 
onies in America had been left much to themselves. No new 
colonies had been founded, and the old ones had managed their 
own affairs in their own way. But with Charles II a new era 
opens. Several new colonies were soon established ; and 
though Rhode Island and Connecticut received liberal charters, 
all the colonies were soon to feel the king's control. As we 
shall see later, Massachusetts was deprived of her charter; but 
after a few years she received a new one (1691), which united 
the Plymouth Colony, Massachusetts, and Maine in the one 
colony of Massachusetts Bay. New Hampshire, however, was 
made a separate royal province. 

1 The New Haven Colony was destroyed as a distinct colony because its 
people offended the king by sheltering Edward Whalley and William Goffe, two 
of the regicides, or judges who sat in the tribunal that condemned Charles I. 
Wlien they fled to New England in 1660, a royal order for their arrest was sent 
over after them, and a hot pursuit began. For a month they lived in a cave, at 
other times in cellars in Milford, Guilford, and New Haven ; and once they hid 
under a bridge while their pursuers galloped past overhead. After hiding in 
these ways about New Haven for three years they went to Hadley in Massachu- 
setts, where all trace of them disappears. 



THE ENGLISH IN NEW ENGLAND 69 



SUMMARY 

1. In 1620 a body of Separatists . reached Cape Cod and founded Plym- 
outh, the first English settlement north of Virginia. 

2. Two years later the Council for New England granted land to 
Gorges and Mason, from which grew Maine and New Hampshire. 

3. Between k628 and 1680 a great Puritan migration established the 
colony of'Massachusetts Bay, which later absorbed Maine and New Hamp- 
shire. 

4. Religious disputes led to the expulsion of Roger Williams and Anne 
Hutchinson from Massachusetts. They founded towns later united (1643) 
as Providence Plantations (Rhode Island). 

5. Other religious disputes led to the migration of people who settled 
(1635-36) in the Connecticut valley and founded (1639) Connecticut. 

6. Between 1638 and 1640 other towns were planted on Long Island 
Sound, and four of them united (1643) and formed the New Haven Colony. 

7. Massachusetts, Plymouth, Connecticut, and New Haven joined in a 
league — the United Colonies of New England (1643-84). 

8. New Haven was united with Connecticut (1662), and Plymouth 
with Massachusetts (1691), while New Hampshire was made a separate prov- 
ince; so tliat after 1691 the New England colonies were New Hampshire, 
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Connecticut. 

9. The New England colonists lived largely in villages. They were 
engaged in farming, manufacturing, and commerce. 

10. For twenty years, during the Civil War and the Puritan rule in Eng- 
land, the colonies were left to themselves; but in 1660 Charles II became 
king of England, and a new era began in colonial aifairs. 



CHAPTER VI 

THE MIDDLE AND SOUTHERN COLONIES 

The Coming of the Dutch. — We have now seen how English 
colonies were planted in the lands about Chesapeake Bay, and 




Landing of Hudson. From an old print. 

in New England. Into the conntry lying between, there came 
in 1609 an intruder in the form of a little Dutch ship called the 
Half-Moon. The Dutcl\ East India Company had iitted her 
out and sent Captain Henry Hudson in her to seek a north- 
easterly passage to China. Driven back by ice in his attempt 
to sail north of Europe, Hudson turned westward, and came at 
last to Delaware Bay. Up this the Half-Moon went a little 

70 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES 



71 



R^^ 




way, but, grounding on 
the shoals, Hudson 
turned about, followed 
the coast northward, 
and sailed up the river 
now called by his name. 
He went as far as the 
site of Albany; then, 
finding that the Hud- 
son was not a passage 
through the continent, 
he returned to Europe. ^ 
Discoveiies of Block 
and May. — The discov- 
ery of the Hudson gave 
Holland or the Nether- 
lands a claim to the 
countr}' it drained, and 
year after year Dutch 
explorers visited the re- 
gion. One of them, 
Adrien Block, (in 1614) 

went through Long Is- New Netherland. 

land Sound, ascended the Connecticut River as far as the site 
of Hartford, and sailed along the coast to a point beyond Cape 
Cod; Block Island now bears his name. Another, May, went 
southward, passed between two capes,^ and explored Delaware 

1 Henry Hudson was an English seaman who twice before had made voyages 
to the north and northeastward for an English trading company. Stopping in 
England on his return from America, Hudson sent a report of his discovery to 
the Dutch company and offered to go on another voyage to search for the 
northwest passage. He was ordered to come to Amsterdam,* but the English 
authorities would not let him go. In 1610 he sailed again for the English and 
entered Hudson Bay, where during some months his ship was locked in the ice. 
The crew mutinied and put Hudson, his son, and seven sick men adrift in an 
open boat, and then sailed for England. There the crew were imprisoned. An 
expedition was sent in search of Hudson, but no trace of him was found. 

2 One of these, Cape May, now bears his name ; the other, Cape Henlopen, 
is called after a town in Holland. 



72 



THE DUTCH Ix\ AMERICA 



Bay. The Dutch then chiimed the country from the Dela- 
ware to Cape Cod ; that is, as far as May and Block had 
explored. 

The Fur Trade. — Important as these discoveries were, they 
interested the Dutch far less than the prospect of a rich fur 
trade with the Indians, and in a few years Dutch traders had 
four little houses on Manhattan Island, and a little fort not far 
from the site of Albany. From it buyers went out among the 
Mohawk Indians and returned laden with the skins of beavers 
and other valuable furs ; and to the fort by and by the Indians 
came to trade. So valuable was this traffic that those engaged 
in it formed a company, obtained from the Dutch government 
a cliarter, and for three years (1615-18) enjoyed a monopoly 
of the fur trade from the Delaware to the Hudson. 

The Dutch West India Company. — When the three years 
expired the charter was not renewed ; but a new association 
called the Dutch West India Compau}^ was 
chartered (1621) and given great political 
and commercial power over New Netherland, 
as the Dutch possessions in North America 
were now called. More settlers were sent 
out (in 1623), some to Fort Orange on the 
site of Albany, some to Fort Nassau on 
the South or Delaware River, some to the 
Fresh or Connecticut River, some to Long 
Island, and some to Manhattan Island, where 
they founded the town of New Amsterdam. 

The Patroons. — All the little Dutch set- 
tlements were forts or strong buildings sur- 
rounded by palisades, and were centers of 
the fur trade. Very little farming was done. 
In order to encourage farming, the West India Company (in 
1629) offered an immense tract of land to any member of the 
company who should take out a colony of fifty families. The 
estate of a Patroon, as such a man was called, was to extend 
sixteen miles alono- one bank or eight miles along both banks 




Dutch merchant 
(1620). 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES 73 

of a river, and back almost any distance into the country. ^ A 
number of tliese patroonsliips were established on the Hudson. 

The Dutch on the Connecticut. — The first attempt (in 1G23) 
of tlie Dutch to build a fort on the Connecticut failed ; for the 
company could not spare enough men to hold the valley. But 
later the Dutch returned, nailed the arms of Holland to a 
tree at the mouth of the river in token of ownership, and 
(1G38) b ult Fort Good Hope where Hartford now stands. 
When the Indians informed the English of this, the governor of 
Massachusetts bade the Dutch begone ; and when they would 
not go, built a fort higher up the river at Windsor (1633), and 
another (1635) at Saybrook at the river's mouth, so as to cut 
them off from New Amsterdam. The English colony of Con- 
necticut was now established in the valley ; but twenty yeai's 
passed before Fort (xood Hope was taken from the Dutch. 

Dutch and Swedes on the Delaware. — The Dutch settlers 
on the Delaware were driven oft' by Indians, but a garrison was 
sent back to hold Fort Nassau. Meantime the Swedes ap- 
peared on the Delaware. After the organization of the Dutch 
West India Compan}^ (1623), William Usselincx of Amsterdam 
went to Sweden and urged the king to cliarter a similar com- 
pany of Swedish merchants. A company to trade with Asia, 
Africa, and America was accordingly formed. Some years 
later Queen Christina chartered the South Company, and in 
1638 a colony was sent out by this company, the west bank of 
the Delaware from its mouth to the Schuylkill (skool'kill) was 
bought from the Indians, and a fort (Christina) was built on 
the site of Wilmington. The Dutch governor at New Amster- 
dam protested, but for a dozen years the Swedes remained un- 

1 The first patroonship was Swandale, in what is now the state of DeLaware ; 
but the Indians were troublesome, and the estate was abandoned. The second, 
granted to Michael Pauw, included Staten Island and much of what is now 
Jersey City ; it was sold back to the company after a few years. The most 
successful patroonship was the Van Rensselaer (ren'se-ler) estate on the Hudson 
near Albany. It extended twenty-four miles along both banks of the river and 
ran back into the country twenty-four miles from each bank. The family still 
occupies a small part of the estate. 



74 



THE DUTCH IN AMERICA 



molested, and scattered their settlements along the shores of 
Delaware River and Bay, and called their country New Sweden. 
Alarmed at this, Governor Peter Stuyvesant (sti've-sant) of 
New Netherland built a fort to cut off the Swedes from the 

sea. But a Swedish war 
vessel captured the 
Dutch fort ; whereupon 
Stuyvesant sailed up the 
Delaware with a fleet 
and army, quietly took 
possession of New Swe- 
den, and made it once 
more Dutch territory 
(1655). 

Dutch Rule. — The 
rulers of New Nether- 
land were a director gen- 
eral, or governor, and five 
councilmen appointed by 
the West India Com- 
pany. One of these 
governors, Peter jVlinuit, 
bought ^lanhattan (the 
island now covered by a 
part of New York city) 
from the Indians (1(520 ) 
for 60 guilders, or about 

stuyvesant at New Amsterdam. !{^24 of OUr money. ^ 




^ New Amsterdam was then a cluster of some thirty one-story log houses 
with bark roofs, and two hundred population engaged in the fur trade. The 
town at first grew slowly. There were no such persecution and distress in Hol- 
land as in England, and therefore little inducement for men to migrate. Minuit 
was succeeded as governor by Van Twiller (1633), and he by Kieft (1()38), 
during whose term all monopolies of trade were abandoned. The fur trade, 
heretofore limited to agents of the company, was opened to the world, and new 
inducemeiits were offered to immigrants. Any farmer who would go to New 
Netherland was carried free with his family, and was given a farm, with a house, 
barn, horses, cows, sheep, swine, and tools, for a small annual rent. 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES 



75 



Demand for Popular Government. — As population increased, 
the people began to demand a share in the government ; they 
wished to elect four of the five councilmen. A long quarrel 
followed, but Governor Stuyvesant at last ordered the election 
of nine men to aid him when necessary. ^ 

Population and Customs. — Though most of the New Neth- 
erlanders were Dutch, there were among them also Germans, 
French Huguenots, English, Scotch, Jews, Swedes, and as 
many religious sects as nationalities. 

The Dutch of New Netherland were a jolly people, much 
given to bowling and holidays. They kept New Year's Day, 
St. Valentine's Day, Eas- 
ter and Pinkster (Sunday, 
Monday, and Tuesday the 
seventh week after Easter), 
May Day, St. Nicholas 
Day (December 6), and 
Christmas. On Pinkster 
days the whole population, 
negro slaves included, 
went off to tlie woods on 
picnics. Kirmess, a sort 
of annual fair for each 
town, furnished additional 
holidays. The people rose 
at dawn, dined at noon, 

and supped at six. In no ^ , , 

colony were the people '^'~ ^'' "'^^ 

better housed and fed. 

Dutch door and stoop. 

The Houses stood with 
their gable ends to the street, and often a beam projected from 
the gable, by means of which heavy articles might be raised to 




1 From these nine men in time came an appeal to the Dutch government 
to turn out the company and give the people a government of their own. The 
first demand veas refused, but the second was partly granted ; for in 1653 New 
Amsterdam was incorporated as a city with a popular government. 



76 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 



the attic. The door was divided into an upper and a lower 
half, and before it was a spacious stoop with seats, where the 
family gathered on warm evenings. 

Within the house were huge fireplaces adorned with blue 
or pink tiles on which were Bible scenes or texts, a huge moon- 
faced clock, a Dutch Bible, spinning wheels, cupboards full of 
Delft plates and pewter dishes, rush-bottom chairs, great chests 

for linen and clothes, and 
four - posted bedsteads 
with curtains, feather 
beds, and dimity cover- 
lets, and underneath a 
trundle-bed for the chil- 
dren. A warming pan was 
used to take the chill off 
the linen sheets on cold 
nights. In the houses of 
the humbler sort the fur- 
niture was plainer, and 
sand on the floors did 
duty for carpets. 

Trade and Commerce. 
— The chief products of 
the colony were furs, 
lumber, wheat, and flour. 
The center of the fur 
trade was Fort Orange, 
from which great quan- 
tities of beaver and other skins purchased from the Indians 
were sent to New Amsterdam ; and to this port came vessels 
from the West Indies, Portugal, and England, as well as from 
Holland. There was scarcely any manufacturing. The com- 
mercial spirit of the Dutch overshadowed everything else, and 
kept agriculture at a low stage. 

The English seize New Netherland. — The English, who 
claimed the continent from Maine to Florida, and from the 




Four-posted bed, and steps used in getting 
into it. 

In the V^an Cortland Mansion, New York city. 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES 77 

Atlantic to the Pacific, regarded the Dutch as intruders. Soon 
after Charles II came to the throne, he granted the country 
from the Delaware to the Connecticut, with Long Island and 
some other territory, to his brother James, the Duke of York. 

In 1604:, accordingly, a fleet was sent to take possession of 
New Amsterdam. Stuyvesant called out his troops and made 
ready to figlit. But the people were tired of the arbitrary rule 
of the Dutch governors, and petitioned him to yield. At last 
he answered, " Well, let it be so, but I would rather be carried 
out dead." 

New York. — The Dutch flag was then lowered, and New 
Nedierland passed into English hands. New Amsterdam was 
promptly renamed New York ; Fort Orange was called Albany ; 
and the greater part of New Netherland became the province 
of New York.i 

Government of New York. — The governor appointed by the 
Duke of York drew up a code of laws known later as the 
Duke's Laws. No provision was made for a legislature, nor for 
town meetings, nor for schools.^ Government of this sort did 
not please the English on Long Island and elsewhere. Demands 
were at once made for a share in the lawmaking. Some of the 
people refused to pay taxes, and some towns to elect officers, 
and sent strong })rotests against taxation witliout their con- 
sent. But nearly twenty years passed before New York secured 
a representative legislature.''^ 

1 Head Fiske's Dutrh and Quaker Cnhmh's, Vol. I, pp. 280-201. In 1673, 
England and Holland b( ing at war, a Dutch fleet recaptured New York and 
named it New Orange, and held it for a few months. When peace was made 
(1074) the city was restored to the English, and Dutch rule in North America 
was over forever. 

- Each town was to elect a constable and eight overseers, with limited 
powers. Several towns were grouped into a "riding," over which presided a 
sheriff appointed by the governor. In 1683 the ridings became counties, and in 
170.3 it was ordered that the people of each town should elect members of a 
board of sn per visors. 

^ In 1083 Thomas Dongan came out as governor, with authority to call an as- 
sembly to aiil in making laws and levying taxes. Seventeen representatives met in 
New York, enacted some laws, and framed a Charter of Franchises and Trivileges. 
The duke signed this as proprietor in 1084 ; but revoked it as King James II. 



78 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 



Education. — In the schools established by the Dutch, the 
master was often the preacher or the sexton of the Dutch church. 
Many of the Long Island towns were founded by New Eng- 
landers, who long kept up their Puritan customs and methods 
of education. But outside of New York city and a few other 

large towns, there were 
no good schools during 
the early years of the 
New York colony. 

New Jersey. — Before 
the Duke of York had 
possession of his province, 
he cut off the piece be-. 
tween the Delaware River 
and the lower Hudson 
and gave it to Sir George 
Carteret and Lord Berke- 
ley (1664). They named 
this land New Jersey, 
and divided it by the 
line shown on the map 
into East and West Jer- 
sey. Lord Berkeley sold 
his part — West Jersey 
— to some Quakers, and 




New Jersey, Delaware, and eastern 
Pennsylvania. 



a Quaker colony was planted at Burlington. Carteret's portion 
— East Jersey — was sold after his death to William Penn ^ 



1 William Penn was the son of Sir William Penn, an admiral in the navy of 
the Commonwealth and a friend of Charles II. At Oxford young William Penn 
was known as an athlete and a scholar and a linguist, a reputation he main- 
tained in after life by leainiing to speak Latin, French, German, Dutch, and Italian. 
After becoming a Quaker, he was taken from Oxford and traveled in France, Italy, 
and Ireland, where he was imprisoned for attending a Quaker meeting. The 
father at first was bitterly opposed to the religious views of the son, but in the 
end became reconciled, and on the death of the admiral (in 1670), William Penn 
inherited a fortune. Thenceforth all his time, means, and energy were devoted 
to the interests of the Quakers. For a short account of Penn, read Fiske's 
Dutch and Quaker Colonies, Vol. II, pp. 114-118, 129-130. 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES 



79 



,l"'""!!l|l': 



and other Quakers, who had acquired West Jersey also. In 
1702, however, the proprietors gave up their right to govern, 
and the two colonies were united into the one royal province 
of New Jersey. 

Pennsylvania. — Penn had joined the Friends, or Quakers, 
when a very young man. Tlie part he took in the settlement 
of New Jersey led him 
to think of founding a 
colony where not onl}' tlie 
Quakers, but any others 
Avho were persecuted, 
might find a refuge, and 
where he might try a 
" holy experiment " in 
government after his own 
ideas. The king was 
therefore petitioned " for 
a tract of land in Amer- 
ica lying north of Mary- 
land," and in 1681 Penn 
received a large block of 
land, wliich was named 
Pennsylvania, or Penn's 
Woodiand.i 

Philadelphia Founded. 
— Having received his 
charter, Penn wrote an 
account of his province and circulated it in England, Ireland, 
Wales, Holland, and Germany. In the autumn of 1681 three 
shiploads, of colonists were sent over. Penn himself came the 
next spring, and made liis way to the spot chosen for the site 
of PliiladelDhia. The land belonged to three Swedish brothers ; 




Charles II and Penn. 



1 Penn intended to call his tract New Wales, but to please the kin<r changed 
it to Sylvania, before which the king put the name Tenn, in honor of Penn's 
father. The king owed Penn's father £ 16,000, and considered the debt paid by 
the land grant. 



80 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

SO Penn bought it, and began the work of marking out the 
streets and building houses. Before a year went by, Philadel- 
phia was a town of eighty houses. 

Penn and the Indians. — In dealing with the Indians the aim 
of Penn was to make them friends. Before coming over he 
sent letters to be read to them. After his arrival he walked 
with them, sat with them to watch their young men dance, 
joined in their feasts, and, it is said, planned a sort of court or 
jury of six whites and six Indians to settle disputes with the 
natives. In June, 1683, Penn met the Indians and made a treaty 
which, unlike most other treaties, was kept by both parties. 

The Government of Pennsylvania. — As proprietor of Penn- 
sylvania it became the duty of Penn to provide a government for 
the settlers, which he did in the Frame of Government. This 
provided for a governor appointed by the proprietor, a legis- 
lature of two houses elected by the people, judges partly 
elected by the people, and a vote by ballot.^ In 1701 Penn 
granted a new constitution which kept less power for his gov- 
ernor, and gave more power and rights to the legislature and 
the people. This was called the Charter of Privileges, and it 
remained in force as long as Pennsylvania was a colony. 

The " Territories," or Delaware. — Pennsylvania had no front- 
age on the sea, and its boundaries were disputed by the neigh- 
boring colonies. 2 To secure an outlet to the sea,^ Penn applied 

1 All laws were to be proposed by the governor and the upper house ; but the 
lower house might reject any of them. At the first meeting of the Assembly 
Penn offered a series of laws called The Great Lav:. These provided that 
all religions should be tolerated ; that all landholders and taxpayers might vote 
and be eligible to membership in the Assembly ; that every child of twelve 
should be taught some useful trade ; and that the prisons should be made houses 
of industry and education. 

'^ Pennsylvania extended five degrees of longitude west from the Delaware. 
The south boundary was to be "a circle drawn at twelve miles' distance from 
Newcastle northward and westward unto the beginning of the fortieth degree 
of northern latitude, and then by a straight line westward." This was an impossi- 
ble line, as a circle so drawn would meet neither the thirty-ninth nor the fortieth 
parallel. Maryland, moreover, was to extend " unto that part of Delaware Bay 
on the north which lieth under the fortieth degree of north latitude." 

Penn held that the words of his grant "beginning of the fortieth degree " 
meant the thirty-ninth parallel. The Baltimores denied this and claimed to the 



THE MIDDLE COLONIES 



81 



to the Duke of York for a grant of the territory on the west 
bank of the Delaware River to its mouth, and was granted what 
is now Delaware. This region was 
also included in Lord Baltimore's 
grant of Maryland, and the dispute 
over it between the two proprietors 
was not settled till 1732, when the 
present boundary was agreed upon. 
Penn intended to add Delaware to 
Pennsylvania, but the people of these 
" territories," or " three lower coun- 
ties," objected, and in ITOo secured a 
legislature of their own, though they 
remained under the governor of 
Pennsylvania. 

The Peopling of Pennsylvania. — 
The toleration and liberality of Penn 
proved so attractive to tlie people of 
the Old World that emigrants came 
over in large numbers. They came 
not only from England and Wales, 
but also from otlier parts of Europe. 
In later times thousands of Germans 
settled in the middle part of the col- 
ony, and many Scotch-Irish (people 
of Scottish descent from northern 
Ireland) on the western frontier and along the IMaryland border. 

As a consequence of this great migration Pennsylvania be- 
came one of the most populous of the colonies. It had many 
flourishing towns, of wliicli Philadelphia was the largest. This 




Penn's razor, case, and hot 
water tank. 

Now in the possession of the Penn- 
sylvania Historical Society. 



fortieth. The dispute was finally settled by a compromise line wliich was 
partly located (1763-67) by two surveyoi's, Mason and Dixon. In later days thi.s 
Mason and Dixon's line became the boundary between the seaboard free and 
slave-holding states. The north boundary of Pennsylvania was to be "the be- 
ginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude," which, according 
to Penn's argument in the Maryland case, meant the forty -second parallel, and 
en this New Yoi'k insisted, 

M( M. BRIEF 6 



82 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 



36^0- 



V I R G TT^h^t^-^r*', 



was a fine specimen of a genuine English town, and was one 

of the chief cities in English America. 

Between the towns la}^ some of the richest farming regions 

in America. The Germans' especially were fine farmers, raised 

great crops, bred fine horses, and owned farms whose size was 

the wonder of all 
travelers. The labor- 
ers were generally in- 
dentured servants or 
redemptioners. 

Carolina. — When 
Charles II became 
king in 1660, there 
were only two south- 
ern colonies, Virginia 
and Maryland. Be- 
tween the English 
settlements in Vir- 
ginia and the Spanish 
settlements in Flor- 
Carolina by the grant bf 1665. jja was a wide stretch 

of unoccupied land, which in 1663 he granted for a new colony 
called Carolina in his honor. ^ 

Two groups of settlements were planted. One in the north, 
called the Albemarle Colony, was of people from Virginia ; the 
other, in the south, the Carteret Colony, was of people from 
England, who founded Charleston (1670). John Locke, a 
famous English philosopher, at the request of the proprietors 

drew up a form of government,^ but it was opposed by the 

* 

1 The grant extended from the 31st to the 36th degree of north latitude, and 
from the Atlantic to the South Sea ; it was given to eight noblemen, friends of the 
king. In 1665 strips were added on the north and on the south, and Carolina 
then extended from the parallel of 29 degi-ees to that of 36 degrees 30 miinites. 

■^ This plan, the Grand 3Iodel, as it was called, was intended to intro- 
duce a queer sort of nobility or landed aristocracy into America. At the head 
of the state was to be a " palatine." Below him in rank were "proprietaries," 
" landgraves," " caciques," and the "leetmen " or plain people. Read Fiske's 
OUl Virginia and her Neighbours, Vol. II, pp. 271-276. 




THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 83 

colonists and never went into effect. Each colony, however, 
had its own governor, who was sent out by the proprietors till 
1729, when the proprietors surrendered their rights to the 
king. The province of Carolina was then formally divided 
into two colonies known as North and South Carolina. 

Life in North Carolina. — The people of North Carolina lived 
on small farms and owned few slaves. In the towns were a 
few mechanics and storekeepers, in whose hands Avas all the 
commerce of the colony. They bought and sold everything, 
and supplied the farms and small plantations. In the northern 
part of the colony tobacco was grown, in the southern part 
rice and indigo ; and in all parts lumber, tar, pitch, and turpen- 
tine were produced. Herds of cattle and hogs ran wild in the 
woods, bearing their owner's brands, to alter which was a 
crime. 

There were no manufactures ; all supplies were imported 
from EuQfland or the other colonies. There were few roads. 
There were no towns, but little villages such as Wilmington, 
Newbern, and Edenton, the largest of which did not have a 
population of five hundred souls. As in Virginia, the court- 
houses were the centers of social life, and court days the occa- 
sion of social amusements. Education was scanty and poor, 
and there was no printing press in the colony for a hundred 
years after its first settlement. 

Much of the early population of North Carolina consisted 
of indented servants, who, having served out their term in 
Virginia, emigrated to Carolina, where land was easier to get. 
Later came Germans from tlie Rhine country, Scotch-Irish from 
the north of Ireland, and (after 1745) Scotchmen from the 
Highlands.^ 

South Carolina. — In South Carolina, also, the only important 
occupation was })lanting or farming. Rice, introduced about 
1694, was the chief product, and next in importance was indigo. 
The plantations, as in Virginia, Avere large and lay along the 
coast and the banks of the rivers, from which the crops were 

1 Read Fiske's Old Virginia and her Neighbours, Vol. II, pp. 310-319. 



84 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 



floated to Charleston, where the pLanters generally lived. At 
Charleston the crops were bonght by merchants who shipped 
them to the West Indies and to England, whence was brought 
almost every manufactured article the people used. Slaves 
were almost the only laborers, and formed about half the 
population. Bond servants were nearly unknown. Charles- 



§v ■■■;: ■.^'■iyti!wa»ittt19ft,^A; 




dSfti^i^ 




* ' ' " ^"^ ,^ 



w,JjiHBHim 



Charleston in early times. Fr.)in an ol<l inint. 

ton, the one city, was well laid out and adorned with hand- 
some churches, public buildings, and fine residences of rich 
merchants and planters. 

The Pirates. — During the early years of the two Carolinas 
the coast was infested with pirates, or, as they called them- 
selves, " Brethren of the Coast." These buccaneers had 
formerly made their home in the West Indies, whence they 
sallied forth to prey on the commerce of the Spanish colonies. 
About the time Charleston was founded, Spain and England 
wished to put them down. But when the pirates were driven 
from their old haunts, they found new ones in the sounds and 
harbors of Carolina, and preyed on the commerce of Charleston 
till the planters turned against them and drove them off.^ 

Georgia Chartered. — The thirteenth and last of the English 
colonies in North America was chartered in 1732. At that 
time and long afterward, it was tlie custom in England and 
the colonies to imprison people for debt, and keep them in 
jail for life or until the debt was paid. The sufferings of these 
2)eople greatly interested James Oglethorpe, a gallant English 

1 Read Fiske's Old Virginia and her Neighbours, Vol. II, pp. .SGl-o69. 



THE SOUTHERN COLONIES 



85 



soldier, and led liiin to attempt something for their relief. His 
plan was to have them released, provided they would emigrate 
to America. Others aided him, and in 1732 a company was 
incorporated and given the land between the Savannah and 
Altamaha rivers from their mouths to their sources, and thence 
across the continent to the Pacitic. The new colony was called 
Georgia, in honor of King (Jecn-ge II. 

The site of the new colony was chosen in order tliat Georgia 
might occn})y and hold some disputed territory, ^ and serve as 
a '' buffer colony " to protect Charleston from attacks l)y the 
Spaniards and the Indians. 

The Settlement of Georgia. — In 1732 Ogle- 
thorpe with one hundred and thirty colonists 
sailed for Charleston, and after a short stay 
started south and founded Savannah (1733). 
The colony was not settled entirely by re- 
leased English debtors. To it in time came 
people from New England and the distressed 
of many lands, including Italians, Germans, 
and Scottish Highlanders. Oglethorpe's com- 
pany controlled Georgia twenty years ; but 
the colonists chafed under its rule, so that 
the company finally disbanded and gave the 
province back to the king (1752). 

Under the proprietors the people were required to manufac- 
ture silk, plant vine3'ards, and produce oil. I)Ut tlie prosperity 




Scottish Highlander. 



1 Ever since the early voyages of discovery Spain had claimed the whole of 
North America, and all of South America west of the Line of Demarcation. 
But in 1670 Spain, by treaty, acknowledged the right of England to the terri- 
tory she then possessed in North America. No boundaries were mentioned, so 
the i-egion between St. Augustine and the Savannah Hiver was left to be con- 
tended for in the future. England, in the charter to the proprietors of 
Carolina (inii")), asserted her claim to the coast as far south as 2!P. Hut this 
was absurd ; for the parallel of 29° was south of St. Augustine, where Spain 
for a hundred years had maintained a strong fort and settlement. The po.sses- 
sions of England really stopped at the Savannah River, and sixty-two years 
passed after the treaty with Spain (1670) before any colony was planted south 
of that river. 



86 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

of Georgia began under the royal government, when the colony 
settled down to tlie production of rice, lumber, and indigo. 
Importation of slaves was forbidden by the proprietors, but 
under the royal government it was allowed. The towns were 
small, for almost everybody lived on a small farm or planta- 
tion. 

SUMMARY 

1. While the English were planting the Jamestown colony, the Dutch 
under Hudson explored the Hudson River (1609), and a few years later the 
Dutchmen May and Block explored also Delaware Bay and the Connecticut 
River. 

2. The Dutch fur trade was profitable, and in 1621 the Dutch West 
India Company was placed in control of Kew Netherland. 

3. Settlements were soon attempted and patroonships created ; but the 
chief industry of New Netherland was the fur trade. 

4. In 1638 a Swedish colony, called New Sweden, was planted on the 
Delaware ; but it was seized by the Dutch (1655). 

5. The English by this time had begun to settle in New England. 
This led to disputes, and in 1664 New Netherland was seized by the Eng- 
lish, and became a possession of the Duke of York, brother of King 
Charles II. 

6. Most of the province was called New York ; but part of it was cut 
off and given to two noblemen, and became the province of New Jersey. 

7. In 1663 and 1665 Charles II made some of his friends proprietors 
of Carolina, a province later divided into North and South Carolina. 

8. In 1681 Pennsylvania was granted to William Penn as a proprietary 
colony. 

9. In order to obtain the right of access to the sea, Penn secured from 
the Duke of York what is now Delaware. 

10. The last of the colonies was Georgia, chartered in 1732. 



CHAPTER VII 



HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 



Groups of Colonies. — It has long been customary to group 
the colonies in two ways — according to their geographical 
location, and according to their form of government. 

Geographically considered, there were three groups : (1) the 
Eastern Colonies, or New England — New Hampshire, Massa- 
chusetts (including Plymouth and Maine), Rhode Island, and 
Connecticut ; (2) the Middle Colonies — New York, New 
Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware ; and (3) the Southern 
Colonies — Maryland, Virginia, North and 
South Carolina, and Georgia. (Map, p. 134.) 

Politically considered, there were three 
groups also — the charter, the royal, and 
the proprietary. (1) The charter colonies 
were those whose organization was described 
in a charter ; namely, Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, and Rhode Island. (2) The royal 
colonies were under the immediate authority of 
the king and subject to his will and pleasure 
— New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, 
Virginia, North and South Carolina, and 
Georgia.^ (3) In the proprietary colonies, 
Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, authority was vested 
in a proprietor or proprietaries, who owned tlie land, appointed 
the governors, and establislied the legislatures. 

The First Navigation Act. — It was from the king that the 
land grants, the chartei's, and the powers of government were 

1 New Hampshire after 1079, New York after 1685 (when the Duke of York 
became king), New Jersey after 1702, Virginia after 1624, North and South 
Carolina after 1729, Georgia after 1752. 

87 




Colonial chair. 

In the possession of the 
Concord Antiquarian 

Society. 



88 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

obtained, and it was to him that the colonists owed allegiance. 
Not till the passage of the Navigation Acts did Parliament 
concern itself with the colonies. 

The first of these acts, the ordinance of 1651, was intended 
to cut off the trade of Holland with the colonies. It pro- 
vided that none but English or colonial ships could trade be- 
tween England and her colonies, or trade along the coast from 
port to port, or engage in the foreign trade of the plantations. 

The Second Navigation Act was passed in 1660. It provided 
(1) that no goods should be imported or exported save in 
English or colonial ships, and (2) that certain goods ^ should 
not be sent from the colonies anywhere except to an English 
port. A third act, passed in 1663, required all European goods 
destined for the colonies to be first landed in England. The 
purpose of these acts was to favor English merchants. 

The Lords of Trade. — That tlie king in person should attend 
to all the trade affairs of his colonies was impossible. Erom a 
very early time, therefore, the management of trade matters 
was intrusted to a committee appointed by the king, or by 
Parliament during the Civil War and the Commonwealth. 
After the restoration of the monarchy (in 1660) this body was 
known first as the Committee for Eoreign Plantations, then as 
the Lords of Trade, and finally (after 1696) as the Lords of 
the Board of Trade and Plantations. It was their duty to cor- 
respond with the governors, make recommendations, enforce 
the Navigation Acts, examine all colonial laws and advise the 
king as to which he should veto or disallow, write the king's 
proclamations, listen to complaints of merchants, — in short, 
attend to everything concerning the trade and government of 
the colonies. 

The Colonial Governor. — The most important colonial official 
Avas the governor. In Connecticut and Rhode Island the gov- 
ernor was elected by the people ; in the royal colonies and 

1 These goods were products of the colonies and were named in the act — 
such as tobacco, sugar, indigo, and furs. There was a long list of such " enumer- 
ated goods," as they were called. 



HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 



89 




Colonial parlor (restoration). 

in Massachusetts (after 1684) he was appointed by tlie king, 
and in the proprietary colonies by the proprietor with the 
approval of the king. Each governor appointed by the king 
recommended legislation to the assemblies, informed the king 
as to the condition of the colony, sent home copies of the 
laws, and by his veto prevented the passage of laws injurious 
to the interests of the crown. From time to time he received 
instructions as to what the king wished done. He was com- 
mander of the militia, and could asseml)le, prorogue (adjourn), 
and dismiss the legislature of the colony. 

The Council. — Associated with the governor in every colony 
was a Council of from three to twenty-eight men ^ who acted as 
a board of advisers to the governor, usually served as the npper 
house of the legislature, and sometimes acted as the highest or 
supreme court of the colony. 

1 In the royal colonies they were appointed by the crown : in Massachusetts, 
by the General Court ; in the proprietary colonies, by the proprietor. 



90 



THE ENGLISH Ix\ AMERICA 



The Lower House of the legislature, or the Assembly, — 
called by different names in some colonies, as House of Dele- 
gates, or House of Commons, — was chosen by such of the peo- 
ple as could vote. With the governor and Council it made the 
laws,i levied the taxes, and appointed certain officers ; but (ex- 
cept in Rhode Island and Connecticut) the laws could be vetoed 
by the governor, or disallowed by the king or the proprietor. 

There were many disputes between governor and Assembly, 
each trying to gain more power and influence in the govern- 
ment. If the governor vetoed many laws, the Assembly might 
refuse to vote him any salary. If the Assembly would not 
levy taxes and pass laws as requested by the governor, he might 
dismiss it and call for the election of a new one. 

The Laws. — Many of the laws of colonial times seem to us 
cruel and severe. A large number of crimes were then punish- 
able with death. For 
less serious offenses men 
and women had letters 
branded on their fore- 
heads or cheeks or hands, 
or sewed on their outer 
garments in plain sight ; 
or were flogged through 
the streets, ducked, stood 
under the gallows, stood 

Colonial pewter dishes. -^^ ^j^^ ^.j^^^.^^ ^^ p^^ -^^ 

the stocks. In New England it was an offense to travel or 
cook food or walk about the town on the Sabbath day, or to 
buy any cloth with lace on it. 




1 In Massachusetts as early as 16o4 the General Court consisted of the gov- 
ernor, the assistants, and two deputies from each town. During ten years 
they all met in one room ; but a quarrel between the assistants and the deputies 
led to their meeting as separate bodies. For an account of this curious quar- 
rel see Fiske's Befjinnincjs of Neui England, pp. 106-108. In Connecticut and 
Rhode Island also the towns elected deputies. Outside of New England the 
delegates to the lower branch of the legislature were usually elected from coun- 
ties, but sometimes from important cities or towns. 



HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 91 

Local Government was of three systems : the town (town- 
ship) in New England; the county in the Southern Colonies; 
and in the Middle Colonies a mixture of both. 

Town Meeting. — The affairs of a New England town were 
regulated at town meeting, to which from time to time the free- 
men were " warned," or summoned, by the constable. To be a 
freeman in Massachusetts and Connecticut a man had to own a 
certain amount of property and be a member of a recognized 
church. If a newcomer, he had to be formally admitted to 
freemanship at a town meeting. These meetings were pre- 
sided over by a moderator chosen for the occasion, and at them 
taxes were levied, laws enacted, and once a year officers were 
elected. 1 The principal town officers were the selectmen who 
managed the town's affairs betweoi town meetings, the con- 
stables, overseers of the poor, assessors, the town clerk, and the 
treasurer. 

The County. — In the South, where plantations were numer- 
ous and wliere there were no towns of the New England kind, 
county government prevailed. The officers were appointed by 
the royal governor, formed a board called the court of quarter 
sessions, and levied local taxes, made local laws, and as a court 
administered justice. 

In the Middle Colonies there were both town and county 
governments. In New York, each town (after 1703) elected a 
supervisor, and count}' affairs were managed by a board con- 
sisting of the supervisors of all the towns in the county. In 
Pennsylvania the county officers were elected by the voters of 
the whole county. 

1 The first government of Plymouth Colony was practically a town meeting. 
The first town to set up a local government in Massachusetts was Dorchester 
(1633). Thus started, the system spread over all New England. Nothing was 
too petty to be acted on by the town meeting. For example, " It is ordered 
that all dogs, for the space of three weeks after the publishing hereof, shall have 
one leg tied up. . . If a man refuse to tye up his dogs leg and he be found 
scraping up fish [used for fertilizer] in the corn field, the owner shall pay l'2s., 
besides whatever damage the dog doth." The proceedings of several town 
meetings at Providence are given in Hart's American History told by Contem- 
poraries, Vol. II, pp. 214-219. 



92 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

No Representation in Parliament. — The colonies sent no 
representatives to Parliament, in certain matters that body 
legislated for the colonies, as in the case of the Navigation Acts. 
But unless expressly stated in the act, no law of Parliament 
applied to the colonies. Having no representation in Parlia- 
ment, the colonies often sent special agents to London to look 
after their affairs, and in later times kept agents there regularly, 
one man acting for several colonies.^ 

A Union of the Colonies. — The idea of uniting the colo- 
nies for purposes of general welfare and common defense was 
proposed very early in their history. In 1697 Penn suggested 
a congress of delegates from each colony. A little later Robert 
Livingston of New York urged the grouping of the colonies 
into three provinces, from each of wliich delegates should be 
sent to Albany to consider measures for defense. As yet, how- 
ever, the colonies were not ready for anything of this sort. 

The Charters Attacked. — The king, on the other hand, had 
attempted to unite some of the colonies in a very different 
way — by destroying the charters of the northern colonies and 
putting them under one governor. The first attack was made 
by King Charles II, on Massachusetts, and after a long struggle 
her charter (p. 58) was taken away by the English courts in 
1684. The charters of Rhode Island and Connecticut were 
next annulled, and King James IP sent over Edmund Andros 
as governor of New England. 

Connecticut saves her Charter. — Andros reached Boston in 
1686, and assumed the government of Massachusetts and New 
Hampshire.^ He next ordered Plymouth, Rhode Island, and 
Connecticut to submit and accept annexation. Plymouth and 
Rhode Island did so, but Connecticut resisted. Andros there- 
fore came to Hartford (1687), dissolved the colonial govern- 

1 Penn's charter required him to keep an agent in or near London. 

'■^ Charles II died in 1685 and was succeeded by his brother, the Duke of York 
(proprietor of the colony of New York), who reigned as James II. 

3 New Hampshire, which had been annexed by Massachusetts in 1641, was 
made a separate province in 1679 ; but during the governorship of Andros it 
was again annexed. 



HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 93 

ment, and demanded the Connecticnt charter. Tradition says 
that the Assembly met him, and debated the question till dusk ; 
candles were then lighted and the charter brought in and laid 
on the table ; this done, the candles were suddenl}^ blown out, 
and when they were relighted, the charter could not be found ; 
Captain Wadsworth of Hartford had carried it off and hidden 
it in an oak tree thereafter known as the Charter Oak. 

l)Ut Andros ruled Connecticut, and in the following year 
New York and East and West Jersey also were placed under his 
authority. Andros thus became nder of all the provinces lying 
north and east of the Delaware River. ^ His rule was tyranni- 
cal : he abolished the legislatures, and with the aid of appointed 
councihnen he made laws and levied taxes as he pleased. 

The English Revolution of 1689. — In lliSO King James H 
was driven from his throne, William and Mar}^ became king 
and queen of England, and war broke out with France. News 
of these events caused an upheaval in the colonies. The people 
in Boston promptly seized Andros and })ut him in jail ; Con- 
necticut and Rhode Island resumed their charter governments ; 
the Protestants in Maryland overthrew the government of the 
proprietor and set up a new one in the name of William and 
Mary^; and in New York Leisler raised a rebellion. 

Massachusetts Rechartered. — ^Massachusetts sent agents to 
London to ask for the restoration of her old charter ; but in- 
stead William granted a new charter in 1G91, which provided 
that the governor should be appointed by the king. Plymouth 
and ]\Iaine were united with ^lassachusetts, l)ut New Hamp- 
shire was made a separate royal colony. The charters of Rhode 

1 These were Massachusetts (including Maine), New Hampshire, Plymouth, 
Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, East Jersey, and West Jersey — eight 
in all. The only otlier colonies then in existence were Pennsylvania (including 
Delaware), Maryland, Virginia, and Carolina. For an account of the attack on 
the New England charters, read Fiske's Beginmnys of New Em/land., pp. 20-j- 
268. 

- The Protestant Episcopal Church of England was established in the colony 
(1692), and shaq) laws were made against Catholics. From 1691 till 171') 
Maryland was governed as a royal province ; but then it was given back to the 
fifth Lord Baltimore, who was a Protestant. 



94 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 





at 


u 


If iliBi ■?(■* 


■lr;_ 


M 


k* 


*•! 





The fort at New York. 



Island and Connecticut were confirmed, so that they continued 
to elect their own governors. 

Leisler's Rebellion. — Andros had ruled New York through 
a deputy named Nicholson, who tried to remain in control. A 
rich merchant named Jacob Leisler denied the right of Nichol- 
son to act, refused to pay duty on some wine he had imported, 

and, aided by the people, 
seized the fort and set 
up a temporary govern- 
ment. A Convention was 
then called, a committee 
of safety appointed, and 
Leisler was made com- 
mander in chief. Later 
he assumed the office 
of lieutenant governor. 
When King William 
lieard of these things, he appointed a new governor, and early 
in 1691 three ships with some soldiers reached New York. 
Leisler at first refused to give up the fort ; but was soon forced 
to surrender, and was finally hanged for rebellion.^ 

Bacon's Rebellion. — Massachusetts and New York were not 
the lirst colonies in which bad government led to uprisings 
against a royal governor. In Virginia, during the reign of 
Charles II, the rule of Governor Berkeley was selfish and 
tyrannical. In 1676 the planters on the frontier asked for 
protection against Indian attacks, but the governor, who was 
engaged in Indian trade, refused to send soldiers ; and when 
Nathaniel Bacon led a force of planters against the Indians, 
Berkeley declared him a rebel, raised a force of men, and 
marched after him. Wliile Berkeley was away, the people in 
Jamestown rose and demanded a new Assembly and certain re- 
forms. Berkeley yielded to the demands, and was also com- 

1 Kead Fiske's Dutch and Quaker Colonies, Vol. II, pp. 199-208. In 
Leisler\<i Times, by Elbridge Brook.s, and The Iie(/7im''s Daughter, by Edwin 
L. Bynner, are two interesting .stories based on the events of Leisler's time. 



HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 95 

pelled to give Bacon a commission to fight the Indians ; but 
when Bacon was well on his way, Berkeley again proclaimed 
him a rebel, and fled from Jamestown. 

Bacon, supported by most of the people, now seized the 
government and sent a force to capture Berkeley. The gov- 
ernor and his followers defeated this force and occupied 
Jamestown. Bacon, who was again on the frontier, returned, 
drove Berkeley away, burned Jamestown lest it should be 
again occupied, and a month later died. The popular uprising 
then subsided rapidly, and when the king's forces arrived 
(1G77) to restore order, Berkeley was in control. ^ 

Growth of Population. — During the century which followed 
the restoration of monarchy (16(50) the colonies grew not onl}^ 
in number but also in population and in wealth. In 1(100 there 
were probably 200,000 people in the English colonies; by 
1760 there were nearly 2,000,000 — all east of the Appa- 
lachian watershed. The three great centers were Virginia, 
Massachusetts, and Pennsylvania. Sparse as the population 
seems to us, the great march across the continent had begun. ^ 

Cities and Towns. — The century (1660-1760) had seen the 
rise of but one real city in the South — Charleston. Annapolis 
was a village, Baltimore a hamlet of a hundred souls, Williams- 
burg and Norfolk were but towns, and no place in North Caro- 

1 Berkeley put so many men to death for the part they bore in the rebellion 
that King Charles said, "The old fool has put to death more people in that 
naked country than I did here for the murder of my father." Berkeley was 
recalled. Read Fiske's Old Virginia and her Neighbours^ Vol. H, pp. 44-95 ; 
or the Century Magazine for July, 1890. 

'^ In New Hampshire settlers had moved up the valley of the Merrimac to 
Concord. In Massachusetts they had crossed the Connecticut River and were 
well on toward the New York border (map, p. 59). In New York settlement 
was still contined to Long Island, the valley of the Hudson, and a few German 
settlements in the Mohawk valley. In Pennsylvania Germans and Scotch-Irish 
had pressed into the Susquehanna valley; Reading had been founded on the 
upper Schuylkill, and Bethlehem in the valley of the Lehigh (map, p. 78). In 
Virginia population had gone westward up the York, the Rappahannock, 
and the James rivers to the foot of the Blue Ridge; and Germans and Scotch- 
Irish from Pennsylvania had entered the Great Valley (map, p. 50). In North 
Carolina and South Carolina Germans, Swiss, Welsh, and Scotch-Irish were 
likewise moving toward the mountains. 



96 



THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 



lina was more than a country village. Philadelphia, which did 
not exist in 1660, had become a place of 16,000 people in 1760, 
neat, well-built, and prosperous. Near by was Germantown, 
and further west Lancaster, the largest inland town in all the 
colonies. Betwesn Philadelphia and New York there were no 
places largei" than small villages. New York had a population 
of some 12,000 souls; Boston, the chief city in the colonies, 
some 20,000; and in New England were several other towns of 
importance. 

Life in the Cities. — In the cities and large towns from 
Boston to Charleston in 1760 were many fine houses. Every 

family of wealth had 
costly furniture, plenty 
of silver, china, glass, and 
tapestry, and every com- 
fort that money could 
then buy. The men wore 
broadcloth, lace ruffles, 
silk stockings, and silver 
shoe buckles, powdered 
their hair, and carried 
s word s . The women 
dressed more elaborately 
in silks and brocades, 
and wore towering head- 
dresses and ostrich 
plumes. Shopkeepers wore homespun, workingmen and me- 
chanics leather aprons. 

Things not in Use in i66o. — Should we make a list of what 
are to us the everyday conveniences of life and strike from the 
list the things not known in 1660, very few would remain. A 
business man in one of our large cities, let us suppose, sets off 
for his place of business on a rainy day. He puts on a pair of 
rubbers, takes an umbrella, buys a morning newspaper, boards a 
trolley car, and when his place of business is reached, is carried 
by an ' elevator to his office floor, and enters a steam-heated, 




Colonial sideboard, with knife cases, candlestick, 

pitchers, and decanter. 
In the possession of the Concord Antiquarian Society. 



HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 



97 




electric-lighted room. In 1660 and for many years after, 
there was not in any of the colonies a pair of rubbers, an um- 
brella, a trolley car, a morning news- 
paper, an elevator, a steam -heated 
room,i an electric light. 

The man of business sits down in a 
revolving chair before a rolltop desk. 
In front of him are steel pens, India 
rubber eraser, blotting paper, rubber 
bands, a telephone. He takes up a 
bundle of typewritten letters, dictates answers to a stenographer, 
sends a telegram to some one a thousand miles away, and before 
returning home has received an answer. In 1660 there was not 

in all the land a stenographer, 
or any of the articles men- 
tioned ; no telephone, no tele- 
grajjh, not even a post office. 
Travel and Communica- 
tion. — If business calls him 
from home, he travels in 
comfort in a steamboat or a 
railway car, and goes fartlier 
in one hour than in 1660 he 
could have gone in two days, 
for at that time there was not 
a steamboat, nor a railroad, 
nor even a stagecoach, in 
North America. Men went 
from one colony to another 
by sailing vessel ; overland 
they traveled on horseback; and if a wife went Avith her hus- 
band, she rode behind him on a pillion. The produce of the 
farms was drawn to the village market by ox teams. 

1 Houses were warmed by means of open fireplaces. Churches were not 
warmed, even in the coldest days of winter. People would bring foot stoves 
with them, and men would sit with their hats, greatcoats, and mittens on. 

McM. BRIEF — 7 




Traveling in 1660. 



98 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

Newspapers and Printing. — In 1660 no newspaper or maga- 
zine of any sort was published in the colonies. The first print- 
ing press in English America was set up at Cambridge in 1680, 
and was long the only one. The first newspaper in our country 
was the Boston JVews Letter, printed in 1704, and there was 
none in Pennsylvania till 1719, and none south of the Potomac 
till 1732. 

Liberty of the Press did not exist. No book, pamphlet, or 
almanac could be printed without permission. In 1685, when 
a printer in Philadelphia printed something in his almanac which 
displeased the Council, he was forced to blot it out. Another 
Philadephia printer, Bradford, offended the Quakers by putting 
into his almanac something "too light and airy for one that is a 
Christian," whereupon the almanac was suppressed; and for 
later offenses Bradford was thrown into jail and so harslily 
treated that he left the colony. 

In New York (1725) Bradford started the first newspaper in 
that colony. One of his old apprentices, John Peter Zenger, 
started the second (1733), and soon called down the wrath of 
the governor because of some sharp attacks on liis conduct. 
Copies of the newspaper were burned before the pillory, Zenger 
was put in jail, and what began as a trial for libel ended in a 
great struggle for liberty of the press; Zenger's acquittal was 
the cause of great public rejoicings.^ 

Changes between i66o and 1760. — By 1760 the conditions 
of life in the colonies had changed for the better in many 
respects. Stagecoaches had come in, and a line ran regularly 
between New York and Philadelphia. Post offices had been 
established. There were printing presses and newspapers in 
most of the colonies, there were public subscription libraries in 
Charleston and Philadelphia, and six colleges scattered over the 
colonies from Virginia to Massachusetts. 

Education. — What we know as the public school system, 
however, did not yet exist. Children generally attended pri- 
vate schools kept by wandering teachers who were boarded 
1 Kead Flske's Dutch and Qvaker Colonics, Vol. II, pp. 248-257. 



HOW THE COLONIES WERE GOVERNED 



99 



around among the farmers or village folk; and learned only to 
read, write, and cipher. But a few went to the Latin school or 
to college, for which they were often prepared by clergymen. 

Sports and Pastimes. — Amusements in colonial days varied 
somewhat with the section of the country and the character of th& 
people who had settled it. Corn huskings, quilting parties, and 
spinning bees were common in many colonies. A house raising 
or a log-rolling (a piling bee) was a great occasion for frolic. 
Picnics, tea parties, and dances were common everywhere; the 
men often competed in foot races, wrestling matclies, and shoot- 
ing at a mark. In Xew England the great day for such sports 
was training day, which came four times a year, when young 
and old gathered on the village green to see the militia com- 
pany drill. 

In New York there were also fishing parties and tavern par- 
ties, and much skating and coasting, horse racing, Ijull Ijaiting, 
bowling on the greens, and in 
New York city balls, concerts, 
and private theatricals. In 
Pennsylvania vendues (auc- 
tions), fairs, and cider press- 
ing (besides husking bees and 
house raisings) were occa- 
sions for social gatherings 
and dances. South of the Po- 
tomac horse racing, fox hunt- 
ing, cock fighting, and cudgel- 
ing were common sports. At 
the fairs there Avere sack and 
hogshead races, bull baiting, 
barbecues, and dancing. There 
was a theater at Williamsburg 
and another in Charleston. 

Manufactures and Commerce. — Little manufacturing was 
done in 1760, save for the household. A few branches of manu- 
factures — woolen goods, felt hats, steel — which seemed likely 




A mill of 1691. 

The power was furnished by the great undershot 
water wheel. 



L. -'A t. 



100 THE ENGLISH IN AMERICA 

to flourish in the colonies were checked by acts of Parliament, 
lest they should compete with industries in England. But 
shipbuilding was not molested, and in New England and 
Pennsylvania many ships were built and sold. 

Land commerce in 1760 was still confined almost entirely 
to the Indian fur trade. In sea-going commerce New England 
led, her vessels trading not only with Great Britain and the 
West Indies, but carrying on most of the coasting trade. In 
general the Navigation Acts were obeyed ; but the Molasses 
Act (1733), which levied a heavy duty on sugar or molasses 
from a foreign colony, was boldly evaded. The law required 
that all European goods must come by way of England ; but 
this too was evaded, and smuggling of European goods was 
very common. Tobacco from Virginia and North Carolina 
often found its way in New England ships to forbidden ports. 

SUMMARY 

1. The English colonies were of tlu-ee sorts — charter, royal, and pro- 
prietary ; but before 1660 each managed its affairs much as it pleased. 

2. Charles II and later kings tried to rule the colonies for the benefit 
of the crown and of the mother country. They acted through the Lords 
of Trade in England and through colonial governors in America. 

3. In 1676 Bacon led an uprising in Virginia against Governor 
Berkeley's arbitrary rule. 

4. In 1684 Massachusetts was deprived of her charter, and within a 
few years all the New England colonies, with New York and New Jersey, 
wei'e put under the tyrannical rule of Governor Andros. 

5. When James II lost his throne, Andros was deposed, and Massa- 
chusetts was given a new charter (1691). 

6. The government of each colony was managed by (1) a governor 
elected by the people (Rhode Island, Connecticut) or appointed by the 
king or by the proprietor; (2) by an appointed Council; and (8) by an 
Assembly or lower house elected by the colonists. 

7. Local government was of three sorts : in New England the town- 
ship system prevailed ; in the Southern Colonies the county system ; and 
in the ^Middle Colonies a mixture of the two. 

8. In 1660-1760 the population increased nearly tenfold ; stagecoaches, 
post offices, and newspapers were introduced ; commerce increased, l)ut little 
manufacturing was done. 



CHAPTER VIII 

THE INDIANS 

Wherever the early explorers and settlers touched our 
coast, they found the country sparsely inhabited by a race of 
men they called Indians. These people, like their descend- 
ants now living in the AVest, were a race Avith copper-colored 
skins, straight, jet-black hair, black eyes, beardless faces, and 
higli clieek bones. 

Mounds and Cliff Dwellings. — Who tlie Indians were origi- 
nally, where they came from, how they reached our continent, 




Ruins of cliff dwellings. 

nobody knows. Long before the Europeans came, the country 
was inhabited by a people, probably the same as the Indians, 
known as mound builders. Their mounds, of many sizes and 
shapes and intended for many purposes, are scattered over 
the Ohio and Mississippi valle^ys in great numbers. Some are 
in the shape of animals, as the famous serpent mound in Ohio. 
Some wei'e for defense, some were village sites, and otliers were 
for burial purposes. 

In the far West and Southwest, wliere the rivers had cut 
deep beds, were the cliff dwellers. In hollow places in the 

101 



102 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 



rocky cliffs which form the walls of these rivers, in Colorado, 
Arizona, and New Mexico, are found to-day the remains of 
___^ these cliff liomes. They are 

higli above tlie river and diffi- 
cult to reach, and could easily 
be defended. 1 

Tribes and Clans. — The In- 
dians were divided into hun- 
dreds of tribes, each with its 
own language or dialect and 
generally living by itself. 
Each tribe was subdivided 
into clans. ]\Iembers of a clan 
were those who traced descent 
from some imaginary ancestor, 
usually an animal, as the wolf, 
the fox, the bear, the eagle. ^ 
An Indian inherited his right 
to be a wolf or a bear from his 
mother. Whatever clan she 
belonged to, that was his also, 
and no man could marry a 
woman of his own clan. The 
civil head of a clan was a " sa- 
chem"; the military heads 
were ''■ chiefs." The sachem 
and the chiefs were elected or 
deposed, and the affairs of the 
clan regulated, by a council of 
all the men and women. The affairs of a tribe were regulated 
by a council of the sachems and chiefs of the clans. ^ 

1 Read Fiske's Discovenj of America, Vol. I, pp. 85-94, 141-146. 

2 The sign or emblem of this ancestor, called the totem, was often painted 
on the clothing, or tattooed on the body. On the northwest coast, it was carved 
on a tall pole, made of a tree trunk, which was set up before the dwelling. 

3 Scientists have grouped the North American tribes into fifty or more dis- 
tinct families or groups, each consisting of tribes whose languages were probably 




Totem pole in Alaska. 



THE INDIANS 103 

Confederacies. — As a few clans were united in each tribe, 
so some tribes united to form confederacies. The greatest and 
most powerful of these was the league of the Iroquois, or Five 
Nations, in central New York.^ It was composed of the Seneca, 
Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida (o-ni'da), and iNIohawk tribes. 
Each managed its own tribal affairs, but a council of sachems 
elected from the clans had charge of the affairs of the confed- 
eracy. So great was the power of the league that it practically 
rtded all the tribes from Hudson Bay to North Carolina, and 
westward as far as Lake ^licliigan. Other confederacies of less 
power were : the Dakota and Blackfeet, west of the jNIississippi ; 
the Powhatan, in Virginia ; and the Creek, the Chickasaw, and 
the Cherokee, in the 
South. 

Hunting. — One of 
the chief occupations 
of an Indian man was 
hunting. He devised 
traps with great skill. 
His weapons were 
bows and arrows with 
stone heads, stone hatchets or tomahawks, flint spears, and 
knives and clubs. To use such weapons he had to get close to 
the aninuxl, and to do this disguises of animal heads and skins 
were generally adopted. The Indians liuuted and trapped 
nearly all kinds of American animals. 

Animals and Implements Unknown to the Indians. — Be- 
fore the coming of the Europeans the Indians had never seen 

developed from a common tongue. East of the Mississippi most of the land was 
occupied by three groups : (1) Between the Tennessee River and the Gulf of 
Mexico lived the Muskho'gees (or Maskoki), including the Creek, Choctaw, and 
Chickasaw tribes. (2) The Iroquois (ir-o-kwoi'), Cherokee', and related tribes 
occupied a large area surrounding Lakes Erie and Ontario, and smaller areas in 
the southern Appalachians and south of the lower James River. (:]) The 
Algonquins and related tribes occupied most of the country around Lakes 
Superior and Michigan, most of the Ohio valley, and the Atlantic seaboard 
north of the James River, besides much of Canada. 

1 Read Fiske's Discovery of America, vol. I, pp. 72-78. 




Indian hatchet and arrowhead, made of stone. 



104 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 




A to.t ii,>.u. 



Indians in full dress. 



horses or cows, sheep, 
hogs, or poultry. The dog 
was their only domesti- 
cated animal, and in many 
cases the so-called dog was 

t,5^,-^— .,, ^.-^, |, really a domesticated wolf. 
f\j/i-0^'^¥[ I Neither had the Indians 
' ^^W-/ . im m A ^ I ^v^r seen firearms, or gun- 
\ JbI^^ iff 'li powder, or swords, nails, or 

steel knives, or metal pots 
or kettles, glass, wheat, 
flour, or many other arti- 
cles in common use among 
the whites. 

Clothing. — Their cloth- 
ing was of the simplest 
kind, and varied, of course, 
with the climate. The 
men usually wore a strip of deerskin around the waist, a hunt- 
ing shirt, leggings, moccasins on the feet, and some- 
times a deerskin over the shoulders. Very often 
they wore nothing but the strip about the waist 
and the moccasins. These garments of deerskin were 
cut with much care, sewed with fish-bone needles 
and sinew thread, and ornamented with shells and 
quills. 

Painting the face and body was a universal custom. 
For this purpose red and yellow ocher, colored earths, 
juices of plants, and charcoal were used. What may be 
called Indian jewelry consisted of necklaces of teeth 
and claws of bears, claws of eagles and hawks, and 
strings of sea shells, colored feathers, and wampum. 
Wampum consisted of strings of beads made from sea 
shells, and was highly prized and used not only for 
orn iment, but as Indian money. 



Houses. — The dwelling of many Eastern Indians 



Wampum. 



THE INDIANS 



105 



was a wigwam, or tent-shaped lodge. It was formed of sap- 
lings set upright in the ground in tlie form of a circle and bent 
together at their tops. Branches wound and twisted among 
the saplings completed the frame, which was covered with 
brush, bark, and leaves. A group of such wigwams made a vil- 
lage, which was often surrounded with a stockade of tree trunks 
put upright in the ground and touching one another. 

On the Western plains the buffalo-hunting Indian lived 
during tlie summer in tepees, or circular lodges made of poles 
tied together at the small ends and covered with buffalo 
skins laced together. The upper end of the tepee was left 
open to let out the smoke of a fire built inside. In winter 
these plains Indians lived in earth lodges. 

Food. — For food the Eastern Indians had fish from river, 
lake, or sea, wild turkeys, wild pigeons, deer and bear meat, 
corn, squashes, pumpkins, beans, berries, fruits, and maple 
sugar (wliich tliey taught the whites to make). In the 
West the Indians killed buffaloes, antelopes, and mountain 
sheep, cut their flesh into strips, and dried it in the sun.^ 

Fish and meat were cooked by 
laying tlie fish on a framework of 
sticks built over a fire, and hanging 
the meat on sticks before the fire. 
Corn and squashes were roasted in 
the ashes. Dried corn was also ground 
between stones, mixed with water, 
and baked in the ashes. Such as Indian jar, of baked clay. 

knew how to make clay pots could boil meat and vegetables. 




^ The manner of drying was called "jerking." Jerked meat would keep 
for months and was cooked as needed. Sometimes it was pounded between 
stones and mixed with fat, and was then called pemmican. 

2 Fire for cooking and wanning was started by pressing a pointed stick 
against a piece of wood and turning the stick around rapidly. Sometimes this 
was done by twirling it between the palms of the hands, sometimes by wrapping 
the string of a little bow around the stick and moving the bow back and forth 
as if fiddling. The revolving stick would form a fine dust which the heat caused 
bv friction would set on tire. 



106 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 



■ 


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gS^PjM 


p 


w 


m 


m^^^l^^HI 


K^ 


MHS fj 


' £ 




BuHiiH 


^'^^ 


^^ _aB^-^B 




^H^^^g 


^ 


HHr£ 




mm 


h^: 


^ ^ 




j^Bf ->" 




■^ 










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_„ 






'or--- 


Mf" 






^-^ 


.«"" 



Making a dugout. 



Canoes. — In moving from place to place the Indians of the 
East traveled on foot or used canoes. In the northern parts 
where birch trees were plentiful, the canoe was of birch bark 

stretched over a light 
wooden frame, sewed with 
strips of deerskin, and 
smeared at the joints with 
spruce gum to make it 
watertight. In the Soutli 
tree trunks hollowed out 
by tire and called dugouts 
were used. In the West 
there were " bull boats " 
made of skins stretched 
over Avooden frames. For 
winter travel the Northern 
and Western Indians used 
snowshoes. 

After the Spaniards brought horses to the Southwest, herds 
of wild horses roamed the southwestern plains, and in later times 
gave the plains Indians a means of travel the Eastern Indians 
did not have. 

Indian Trails. — The Eastern Indians nevertheless often 
made long journeys for purposes of war or trade, and had 
many well-defined trails which answered as roads. Thus one 
great trail led from the site of Boston by way of what is now 
the city of Springfield to the site of Albany. Another in 
Pennsylvania led from where Philadelphia stands to the Sus- 
quehanna, then up the Juniata, over the mountains, and to the 
Allegheny River. There were thousands of such trails scat- 
tered over the country. As the Indians always traveled in 
single file, these trails were narrow paths ; they were worn to 
the depth of a foot or more, and wound in and out among the 
trees and around great rocks. As they followed watercourses 
and natural grades, many of tliem became in after times routes 
used by the white man for roads and railroads. 



THE INDIANS 



107 



Along the sealjoard the Indians lived in villages and wan- 
dered about but little. Hunting and war parties traveled 
great distances, but each tribe had its home. On the great 
plains the Indians wandered long distances with their wo-nien, 
children, and belongings. 




Western Indians traveling. 

Work and Play. — The women did most of the work. They 
built the wigwam, cut the wood, planted the corn, dressed 
the skins, made the clothing, and when the band traveled, car- 
ried the household woods. The brave made bows and arrows, 
built the canoe, hunted, fished, and fought. 

Till a child, or papoose, was able to run about, it was care- 
fully wrapped in skins and tied to a framework of wickei- which 
could be carried on the mother's back, or hung on the branch of 
a tree out of harm's way. When able to go about, the boys wei-e 
taught to shoot, fish, and make arrows and stone implements, and 



108 RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 

the girls to weave or make baskets, and do all the things they 
would have to do as squaws. 

For amusement, the Indians ran foot races, played football ^ 
and lacrosse, held corn huskings, and had dances for all sorts 
of occasions, some of them religious in character. Some 
dances occurred once a year, as the corn dance, the thanksgiv- 
ing of the Eastern tribes; the sun dance of the plains Indians; 
and the fish dance by the Indians of the Columbia River 
country at the opening of the salmon-fishing season. The 
departure of a war party, the return of such a party, the end 
of a successful hunt, were always occasions for dances. ^ 

Indian Religion. — The Indians believed that every person, 
every animal, every thing had a soul, or spirit, or manitou. 
The ceremonies used to get the good will of certain manitous 
formed the religious rites. On the plains it was the buffalo 
manitou, in the East the manitou of corn, or sun, or rain, that 
was most feared. Everywhere there Avas a mythology, or 
collection of tales of heroes who did wonderful things for the 
Indians. Hiawatha was such a hero, who gave them fire, corn, 
the canoe, and other things.^ 

Warfare. — An Indian war was generally a raid by a small 

1 A game of football is thus described : "Likewise tbey have the exercise 
of football, in which they only forcibly encounter with the foot to carry the 
ball the one from the other, and spurn it to the goal with a kind of dexterity 
and swift footmanship which is the honor of it. But they never strike up one 
another's heels, as we do, not accounting that praiseworthy to purchase a goal 
by such an advantage." 

2 One who was with Smith in Virginia has left us this account of what took 
place when the Powhatan was crowned (p. 42): "In a fair plain field they 
made a fire before which (we were) sitting upon a mat (when) suddenly amongst 
the woods was heard ... a hideous noise and shouting. Then presently . . . 
thirty young women came out of the woods . . . their bodies painted some 
white, some red, some black, some particolor, but all differing. Their leader 
had a fair pair of buck's horns on her head, and an otter's skin at her girdle, 
and another at her arm, a quiver of arrows at her back, a bow and arrows in 
her hand. The next had in her hand a sword, another a club ... all horned 
alike. . . . These fiends with most hellish shouts and cries, rushing from 
among the trees, cast themselves in a ring about the fire, singing and dancing. 
. . . Having spent near one hour on this masquerade, as they entered in like 
manner they departed." ^ Read Longfellow's Hiawatha. 



THE INDIANS 109 

party led by a warrior of renown. Such a chief, standing 
beside the war post in his village, would publicly announce the 
raid and call for volunteers. No one was forced to go ; but 
those who were Avilling would step forward and strike the post 
with their tomahawks. Among the plains Indians a pipe was 
passed around, and all who smoked it stood pledged to go. 

The weapons used in war were like those used in the hunt. 
Though the Indians were brave they delighted to fight from 
behind trees, to creep through the tall grass and fall upon 
their enemy unawares, or to wait for him in ambush. The 
dead and wounded were scalped. Captive men were generally 
put to death Avith torture ; but captive women and children 
were usually adopted into the tribe. 

Indian Wars in Virginia. — The first Europeans who came 
to our shores were looked on by the Indians as superior beings, 
as men fj-om the clouds. But before the settlers arrived this 
veneration was dis[)c41ed, and hostility took its place. Thus 
the founders of Jamestown had scarcely touched land when 
they were attacked. But Smith brought about an alliance 
with the Powhatan, and till after his death there was peace. 

Then (1622), under the lead of Opekan'kano, an attack was 
made along the whole line of settlements in Virginia, and in 
one day more than three hundred whites were massaci-ed, their 
houses burned, and much property destroyed. The blow was 
a terrible one ; but the colonists rallied and waged such a war 
against the enemy that for more than twenty years there was 
no great uprising. 

Bat in 1644 Opekankano (then an old and grizzled warrior) 
again led forth his tribes, an(.l in two days killed several hun- 
dred whites. Once more the settlers rallied, swept the Indian 
country, captured Opekankano, and drew a boundary aci-oss 
wliich no Indian could come without permission. If he did, he 
might be shot on sight. ^ 

1 Tliirty-one years later another outbreak occurred, and for nioutlis burnhii? 
and scalping went on alono; the border, till the Indians were beaten by the 
men under Nathaniel Bacon (p. 94). 



no 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 



Early Indian Wars in New England. — In New England the 
experience of the early settlers was much the same. Murders 
by the Pequot Indians having become unendurable, a little 
fleet was sent (1636) against them. Block Island was rav- 
aged, and Pequots on the mainland were killed and their corn 
destroyed. Sassacus, sachem of the Pequots, thereupon sought 
to join the Narragansetts with him in an attempt to drive the 




Destruction of the Pequots. 

English from the country ; but Roger Williams persuaded 
the Narragansetts to form an alliance with the English, and the 
Pequots began the war alone. In the winter (1636-37) the 
Connecticut River settlements were attacked, several men 
killed, and two girls carried off. 

Destruction of the Pequots. — In ]\Iay, 1687, a force of 
seventy-seven colonists from Connecticut and Massachusetts, 
led by John Mason and John Underbill, marched to the Pequot 



THE INDIANS 111 

village in what is now the southeast corner of Connecticut. 
Some Mohicans and Narragansetts went along ; but when they 
came in sight of the village, they refused to join in the attack. 
The village was a cluster of wigwams surrounded by a stock- 
ade, with two narrow openings for entrance. While some of 
the English guarded them, the rest attacked the stockade, 
flung torches over it, and set the wigwams on Are. Of the 
four hundred or more Indians in the village, but five escaped. 

King Philip's War. — For thirty-eight j^ears the memory of 
the destruction of the Pequots kept peace in New England. 
Then Philip, a chief of the VVampanoags, took the warpath 
(1675) and, joined by the Nipmucks and Narragansetts, sought 
to drive tlie white men from New England. The war began in 
Rhode Island, but spread into Massachusetts, where town after 
town was attacked, and men, women, and children massacred. 
Roused to fury by these deeds, a little band of men from ^Nlas- 
sachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecticut in the dead of winter 
stormed the great swamp fortress of tlie Narragansetts, de- 
stroyed a thousand Indians, and burned the wigwams and winter 
supply of corn. The power of the Narragansetts was broken; 
but the M^ar went on, and before midsummer (1676) twenty 
villages had been attacked by the Nipmucks. But they, too, 
were doomed; their fighting strength was destroyed in two 
victories by the colonists. In August Philip was shot in a 
swamp. These victories ended the war in the south, but it 
broke out almost immediately in the northeast, and raged till 
the summer of 1678. 

During these three years of war New England suffered ter- 
ribly. Twelve towns had been utterly destroyed, forty had 
been partly burned, and a thousand men, besides scores of 
women and children, had perislied. As for the New England 
Indians, their power was gone forever.^ 

Indian Wars in New Netherland. — The Dutch in New 
Netherland were on friendly terms with the Irocpiois, to whom 
they sold fire-arras ; but the Tappans, Raritans, and other Algon- 
1 Read Fiske's Boginninfjs of Neio England, pp. 128-133 ; 211-226, 235-236. 



112 RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 

quill tribes round about New Amsterdam were enemies of the 
Iroquois, and with these the Dutch liad several wars. One 
(1641) was brought on by Governor Kieft's attempt to tax 
the Indians; another (1643—1:5) by the slaughter, one night, of 
more than a hundred Indians who had asked the Dutch for 
shelter from their Mohawk enemies. Many Dutcli farmers 
were murdered, and a great Indian stronghold in Connecticut 
was stormed one winter night and seven hundred Indians 
killed.! After ten years of peace tiie Indians rose again, 
killed men in the streets of New Amsterdam, and harried Staten 
Island ; and again, after an outbreak at Esopus, there were 
several years of war (1658-64). 

In North Carolina some Algonquin tribes conspired with 
the Tuscarora tribe of Iroquois to drive the white men from 
the country, and began horrid massacres (1711). Help came 
from South Carolina, and the Tuscaroras were badly beaten. 
But tlie war was renewed next year, and then another force of 
white men and Indians from South Carolina stormed the Tus- 
caroras' fort and broke their power. The Tuscaroras migrated 
to New York and were admitted to the great Iroquois con- 
federacy of the Five Nations, which thenceforth was known as 
the Six Nations. 2 

In South Carolina. — Among the Indians who marched to 
the relief of Nortli Carolina were men of the Yam'assee tribe. 
That they should turn against the people of South Carolina 
was not to be expected. But the Spainards at St. Augustine 
bought them with gifts, and, joined by Creeks, Cherokees, and 
others, they began (in 1715) a war which lasted nearly a year 
and cost the lives of four hundred wliite men. They, too, 
in the end were beaten, and the Yamassees fled to Florida. 

The story of these Indian wars has been told not because 
they were wars, but because they were the beginnings of that 
long and desperate struggle of the Indian with the white man 
which continued down almost to our own time. The march of 

1 Read Fiske's Dutch and Quaker Colonies, Vol. I, pp. 177-180 ; 183-188. 
" Read Fiske's Old Virginia and her Neighbours, Vol. II, pp. 298-304. 



THE INDIANS 113 

the white man across the continent has been contested by 
the Indian at every step, and to-day there is not a state in the 
Union whose soil has not at some time been reddened by tlie 
blood of both. 

What we owe to the Indian.^ The contact of the two races 
has greatly influenced our language, literature, and customs. 
Five and twenty of our states, and hundreds of counties, cities, 
mountains, rivers, lakes, and bays, bear names derived from 
Indian languages. Chipmuidv and coyote, moose, opossum, 
raccoon, skunk, woodchuck, tarpon, are all of Indian origin. 
We still use such expressions as Indian summer, Indian file, 
Indian corn ; bur}- the hatchet, smoke the pipe of peace. 
To the Indians we owe the canoe, the snowshoe, the toboggan, 
lacrosse. Squanto taught the Pilgrims how to plant corn in hills, 
just as it is planted to-day, and long before the white man came, 
the Indians ate liominy, mush, and succotash, planted pumpkins 
and squashes, and made maple sugar. 

SUMMARY 

1. The Indians were divided into tribes, and the tribes into clans. 

2. Each tribe had its own language or dialect, and usually lived by 
itself. 

3. jNIenibers of a clan traced descent from some common imaginary 
ancestor, usually an animal. The civil head of a clan was the sachem ; the 
military heads were the chiefs. 

4. As the clans were united into trilies, so the tribes were in some 
places joined in confederacies. 

5. The chief occupations of Indian men were hunting and waging war. 
G. Their ways of life varied greatly with the locality in which they lived : 

as in the wooded regions of the East or on the great plains of the West; in 
the cold country of the North or in the warmer South. 

7. The growth of white settlements, crowding back the Indians, led to 
several notable wars in early colonial times, in all of which the Indians 
were beaten : — 

In Virginia : uprisings in 1022 and in 1G44:; border war in 1(37(5. 

In Xew England : Pequot War, 1036-37 ; King Philip's War, 1675-7S. 

In New Xetherland : several wars with Algonquin tribes. 

In North Carolina: Algonquin-Tuscarora uprising, 1711-13. 

In South Carolina : Yamassee uprising, 1715-16. 

McM. BRIEF — 8 



CHAPTER IX 



THE FRENCH IN AMERICA 



While English, Dutch, and Swedes were settling on the 
Atlantic seaboard of North America, the French took pos- 
session of the St. Lawrence, the Great Lakes, and the Missis- 
sippi. Though the attempt of Cartier to plant a colony on the 
St. Lawrence failed (p. 30), the French never lost interest in 
that part of the world, and new attempts were made to plant 
colonies. 

The French in Nova Scotia. — All failed till De Monts 
(d"mawng) and Champlain (sham-plan')i came over in 160-1 




Sault SI.' >Tirrir'.- f I'C^- '''",., 



I ^/v 




NE;WFpUNDL-'AND 6^; 



O, 






■^;i^i': ' 



SCALE OF MILES 



LT ^ 



IIJO 200 30O 4U0 



Canada (New France) and Acadia. 

with two shiploads of colonists. Some landed on the shore of 
what is now Nova Scotia and founded Port Royal. The others, 

1 Samuel de Champlain (born in 1567) had been a captain in the royal navy, 
and had visited the West Indies, Mexico, and the Isthmus of Panama, across 
which he suggested a canal should be cut. In 1603 he was offered a -command 
in a company of adventurers to New France. On this voyage Champlain went 
up the St. Lawrence to the site of the Indian town called Hochelaga by 
Cartier (p. 30) ; but the village had disappeared. Returning to France, he joined 
the party of De Monts (1604). 

114 



THE FRENCH IN AMERICA 115 

led by De Monts, explored the Bay of Fuiidy, and on an island 
at the mouth of a river pknted a colony called St. Croix. The 
name St. Croix (croy) in time was given to the river which is 
now part of the eastern boundary of jNIaine. One winter in 
that climate was enough, and in the spring (1605) the coast 
from Maine to Massachusetts was explored in search of a better 
site for the colony. None suited, and, returning to St. Croix, 
De Monts moved the settlers to Port Royal. 

Quebec Founded. — This too was abandoned for a time, and 
in 1(307 the colonists were back in France. Champlain, how- 
ever, longed to be again in the New World, and soon persuaded 
De Monts once more to attempt colonization. In 1G08, there- 
fore, Champlain with two ships sailed up the St. Lawrence and 
founded Quebec. Here, as was so often the case, the first 
winter was a struggle for life; when spring came, only eight 
of the colonists were alive. But help soon reached them, and 
France at last had secured a permanent footliold in America. 
The drainage basin of the St. Lawrence was called New France 
(or Canada); the lands near Port Royal became another 
French colony, called Acadia. 

Exploration of New France. — Champlain at once made 
friends with the Indians, and in 1609 went with a party of 
Hurons to help fight their enemies, the Iroquois Indians who 
dwelt in central New York.^ The way was up the St. Lawrence 
and up a branch of that river to the lake which now bears the 
name of Champlain. On its western shore tlie expected fight 
took place, and a victory, due to the fire-arms of Champlain 
and his companions, was won for the Hurons.^ Later Cham- 

iThe year 1609 is important in our history. Then it was that Clianiplain 
fought the Iroquois ; that the second Virginia charter was granted ; and tliat 
Hudson's expedition gave the Dutch a claim to territory in the New World. 

■■^ The fight with the Iroquois tooli place not far from Ticonderoga. When the 
two parties approached, Champlain advanced and tired his musket. The woods 
rang with the report, and a chief fell dead. "There arose," says Champlain, "a 
yell like a thunderclap and the air was full of arrows." But when another and 
another gun shot came from the bushes, the Iroquois broke and fled like deer. 
The victory was won ; but it made the Iroquois the lasting enemies of the 
Trench. Read Parkman's Pioneers of France in the Neio World, pp 310-321. 



116 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 



plain explored the Ottawa River, saw the waters of Lake Huron, 
and crossed Lake Ontario. But the real work of French 
discovery and exploration in the interior was done b}^ Catholic 
priests and missionaries. 

The Catholic Missionaries. — With crucifixes and portable 
altars strapped on their backs, these brave men pushed boldly 

into the Indian conntry. 
Guided by the Indians, 
they walked through the 
dense forests, paddled in 
birch-bark canoes, and 
penetrated a wilderness 
where no white man had 
ever been. They built 
little chapels of bark near 
the Indian villages, and 
labored hard to convert 
the red men to Chris- 
tianity. It was no easy 
task. Often and often 
their lives were in dan- 
ger. Some were drowned. 
Some were bnrned at the 
stake. Others were tom- 
ahawked. Bnt neitlier 
cold nor hunger, nor the 
dangers and hardsliips of 
life in the wilderness, 
could turn the priests from their good work. One of them 
toiled for ten years among the Indians on the Niagara River 
and the shores of Lake Huron ; two others reached tlie outlet 
of Lake Superior; a fourth paddled in a canoe along its 
soutli shore. 

The King's Maidens. — For fifty years after the founding of 
Quebec few settlers came to Canada. Then the French king 
sent over each year a hundred or more young women who were 




French priest and Indians in birch-bark canoe. 



THE FRENCH IN AMERICA 



117 



to become wives of the settlers.^ Besides encouran^ing f aiming, 
the government tried to induce the men to engage in cod fishing 
and wlialing ; but the onl}^ business that really flourished in 
Canada \Aas trading with the Indians for furs. 

The Fur Trade. — Each year a great fair was held outside 
the stockade of Monti'eal, to which hundreds of Indians came 
from the far western lakes. They 
brought canoe loads of beaver skins 
and furs of small animals, and ex- 
changed them for bright-colored 
cloth, beads, blankets, kettles, and 
knives. 

This great trade was a monop- 
oly. Its profits could not be en- 
jo^^ed by everybody. Numbers of 
hardy young men, therefore, took to 
the woods and traded with the 
Indians far beyond the reach of the 
king"s officers. By so doing these 
wood rangers (coiireurs de hois'), as 
they were called, became outlaws, 
and if caught, might be flogged and branded witli a hot iron. 
They built trading posts at many places in the West, and often 
married Indian women, which went a long way to make the 
Indians friends of the French. ^ 

The Mississippi. — When the priests and traders reached the 
country about Lake Superior and Lake Michigan, they heard 
from the Indians of a great river called the Mississippi — that is, 
"Big Water'" or "Father of- Waters." Might not this, it was 
asked, be the long-sought northwest passage to the Indies ? 
In hopes that it was. Father Marquette (mar-kef), a priest who 
had founded a mission on the Strait of Mackinac (mack'i-iiaw) 

1 About 1000 came in eight years. When married, they received each "an 
ox, a cow, a pair of swine, a pair of fowls, two barrels of salted meat, and eleven 
crowns in money." Read Parkman's Ohl Eegime in Canada, pp. 219-225. 

2 The fur trade, which was the life blood of Canada, is finely described in 
Parkman's Old Begime in Canada, pp. 302-".ir). 




Indian and fur trader. 




FRENCH CLAIMS, 

MISSIONS.AND TRADING POSTS 
IN MISSISSIPPI VALLEY 

in 1700 



Longitude 85 



118 



THE FRENCH IN AMERICA 



119 



between Lakes Huron and Michigan, and Joliet (zho-le-a'), a 
trapper and soldier, were sent to tind the river and follow it to 
the sea. 

They started in the spring of 1673 with five companions in 
two canoes. Their way was from the Strait of Mackinac to 
Green Bay in Wis- 
consin, up the Fox 
River, across a 
portage to the 
Wisconsin River, 
and down this to 
the Mississippi, on 
whose waters they 
floated and pad- 
dled to a place 
probably below 
the mouth of the 
Arkansas. There 
the travelers 
stopped, and 
turned back toward Canada, convinced that the great river ^ 
must flow not to the Pacific, but to the Gulf of Mexico. 

La Salle on the Mississippi, 1682. — The voyage of Mar- 
quette and Joliet was of the greatest importance to France. 
Yet the only man who seems to have been fully awake to its 
importance was La, Salle. If the Mississippi flowed into the 
Gulf of Mexico, a new and boundless Indian trade lay open 
to Frenchmen. But did it flow into the Gulf ? That was a 
question La Salle proposed to settle ; but three heroic attempts 
were made, and two failures, which to other men would have 




Marquette and Joliet at a portage. 



1 Marquette named the river Immaculate Conception. He noted the abun- 
dance of fish in its waters, the broad prairies on which grazed herds of buffalo, 
and the flocks of wild turkeys in the woods. On his way home he ascended the 
Illinois River, and crossed to Lake Michigan, passing over the site where Chi- 
cago now stands. Read Mary Hartwell Catherwood's Heroes of the Middle 
West ; also Parkman's La Salle and the Discovery of the Great West, pp. 48-71; 
and Hart's American History as told by Contemporaries, Vol. I, pp. I3(i-140, 



120 RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 

been disheartening, were endured, before he passed down the 
river to its mouth in 1682.^ 

Louisiana. — Standing on the shore of the Gulf of Mexico, 
La Salle put up a rude cross, nailed to it the arms of France, 
and, in the name of the French king, Louis XIV, took formal 
possession of all the region drained by the Mississippi and its 
branches. He named the country Louisiana. 

La Salle knew little of the extent of the region lie thus 
added to the possessions of France in the New World. But 
the claim was valid, and Louisiana stretched from the unknown 
sources of the Ohio River and the Appalachian Mountains on 
the east, to the unknown liocky Mountains on the west, and 
from the watershed of the Great Lakes on the north, to the 
Gulf of Mexico on the south. 

La Salle attempts to occupy Louisiana, 1682. — But the 
great work La Salle had planned was yet to be done. Louisiana 
had to be occupied. 

A fort was needed far up the valley of the INIississippi to 
overawe the Lidians and secure the fur trade. Hurrying back 

1 In the first attempt he left Fort Frontenac, coasted along the north shore 
of Lake Ontario, crossed over and went up the Niagara River, and around the 
Falls to Lake Erie. There he built a vessel called the Griffin, which was sailed 
through the lakes to the northern part of Lake Michigan (167!)). Thence he 
went in canoes along the shore of Lake Michigan to the river St. Joseph, where 
he built a fort (Fort St. Joseph), and then pushed on to the Illinois Kiver and 
(near the present city of Peoria) built another called Fort CrfeveccBur (crav'ker). 
There he left Henri de Tonty in charge of a party to build another ship, and 
went back to Canada. 

When he returned to the Illinois in 1680, on his second trip, Crfevecojur was 
in ruins, and Tonty and his men gone. In hope of finding them La Salle went 
down the Illinois to the Mississippi, but he turned back and passed the winter 
on the river St. Joseph. (Read Parknian's description of the great town of 
the Illinois and its capture by the Iroquois, in La Salle and the Discovery of 
the Grmt West, pp. 205-215.) 

From the St. Joseph, after another trip to Canada, La Salle (witli Tonty) 
started we.stward for the third time (late in 1681), crossed the lake to where 
Chicago now is, went down the Illinois and the Mississippi, and in April, 1682, 
floated out on the waters of the Gulf. 

On his first expedition La Salle was accompanied by Father Hennepin, 
whom he sent down the Illinois and up the Mississippi. But the Sioux (soo) 
Indians captured Father Hennepin, and took him up the Mississippi to the falls 
which he named St. Anthony, now in the city of Minneapolis. 



THE FRENCH IN AMERICA 



121 



to the Illinois River, La Salle, in December, 1682, on the top of 
a steep cliff, built a stockade and named it Fort St. Louis. 

A fort and city also needed to be built at the mouth of tlie 
Mississippi to keep out the Spaniards and afford a place whence 
furs floated down the river might be shipped to France. This 
required the aid of the king. Hurrying to Paris, La Salle 
persuaded Louis XIV to help him, and was sent back with four 
shij)s to found the city. 

La Salle in Texas, 1684. — But the little fleet missed the 
mouth of the river and reached the coast of Texas. There the 
men landed and built Fort St. 
Louis of Texas. Well know- 
ing that he had passed the 
river, La Salle left some men 
at the fort, and with tlie rest 
started on foot to find the Mis- 
sissippi — but never reached 
it. He was murdered on the 
way by his own men. 

Of the men left in Texas 
the Indians killed some, and 
the Spaniards killed or cap- 
tured the rest, and the plans of this great explorer failed utterly.^ 

Biloxi. — La Salle's scheme of founding a city near the mouth 
of the Mississippi, however, was carried out by other men. 
Fear that the English would seize the mouth of the river led 
the French to act, and in 1699 a gallant soldier named Iber- 
ville (e-ber-veel') built a small stockade and planted a colony 
at Bilnx'i on the coast of Avhat is now Mississippi. 

New Orleans Founded. — During fifteen years and more the 
little colony, which was soon moved from Biloxi to the vicinity 
of Mobile (map, p. 134), struggled on as best it could; then 
steps were taken to plant a settlement on the banks of the 
Mississippi, and (1718) Bienville (be-an-veel' ) laid the foun- 
dation of a city he called New Orleans. 

1 Read Parkman's La Salle, pp. 275-288, .350-355, 396-405. 




La Salle s house (Canada) in 1900. 



122 RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 



SUMMARY 

1. After many failures, a French colony was planted at Port Royal in 
Acadia (Xova Scotia) in 1601; but this was abandoned for a time, and the 
first permanent French colony was planted by Champlain at Quebec in 
1608. 

2. From these settlements grew up the two French colonies called 
Acadia and New France or Canada. 

3. New France was explored by Champlain, and by many brave priests. 

4. Marquette and Joliet reached the Mississippi and explored it from 
the Wisconsin to the Arkansas (1673). 

5. Their unfinished work was taken up by La Salle, who went down 
the Mississippi to the Gulf (1682), and formally claimed for France all the 
region drained by the river and its tributaries — a vast area which he 
called Louisiana. 

6. Occupation of the Mississippi valley by the French followed ; forts 
and trading posts were built, and in 1718 New Orleans was founded. 



CHAPTER X 
WARS WITH THE FRENCH 

King William's War. — When James II was driven from 
his throne (p. 93), he fled to France. His quarrel with King- 
William was taken up by Louis XIV, and in 1689 war began 
between France and England. The strife thus started in the 
Old World soon spread to the New, and during eight years the 
frontier of New England and New York was the scene of 
French and Indian raids, massacres, and burning towns. 

The Frontier. — The frontier of English settlement con- 
sisted of a strino- of little towns close to the coast in Maine 








G ULF OQF 

7'-^ ris T.LA was N e Ef% 

I ' ^\ CAPF eR^TON 



Nf E 









SCALE OF MILES 



lISo 



Scene of the early wars with the French. 

and New Hampshire, and some sixty miles back from the coast 
in Massachusetts ; of a second string of towns up the Con- 

12.3 



'i24 RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 

necticut valley to central jNIassacliusetts ; and of a third up the 
Hudson to the Mohawk and up the Mohawk to Schenec'tady. 
Most of Maine and New Hampshire, all of what is now Vermont, 
and all New York north and west of the Mohawk was a wilder- 
ness pierced by streams which afforded the French and Indians 
easy ways of reaching the English frontier. 

The French frontier consisted of a few fishing towns 
scattered along the shores of Acadia (what is now Nova Scotia, 
New Brunswick, and eastern Maine), and a few settlements 
along the St. Lawrence to Fort Frontenac, just where the river 
leaves Lake Ontario. 

Between these frontiers in Maine and New Hampshire were 
the Abenaki (ab-nahk'ee) Lidians, close allies of the French 
and bitter enemies of the English ; and in New York the Iro- 
quois, allies of the English and enemies of the French since 
the day in 1600 when Champlain defeated them (p. 115).^ 

The French attack the English Frontier. — The governor of 
New France was Count Frontenac, a man of action, keen, fiery, 
and daring, a splendid executive, an able commander, and well 
called the Father of New France. Gathering his Frenchmen 
and Indians as quickly as possible, Frontenac formed three war 
parties on the St. Lawrence in the winter of 1689-90 : that at 
Montreal was to march against Albany ; that at Three Rivers 
was to ravage the frontier of New Hampshire, and that at 
Quebec the frontier of Maine. The Montreal party was ready 
tirst, and made its way on snowshoes to the little palisaded 
village of Schenectady, passed through the open gates ^ in a 
blinding storm of snow, and in the darkness of night massacred 

1 It was only a few years after this defeat that the Dutch planted their 
trading posts on the upper Hudson. They made friends of the Iroquois, and 
when the English succeeded the Dutch, they followed the same wise policy, 
encouraged the old hatred of the Indians for the French, and inspired more 
than one of their raids into Canada. The Iroquois thus became a barrier against 
the French and prevented them from coming down the Hudson and so cutting 
off New England from the Middle Colonies. 

2 The inhabitants, mostly Dutch, had been advised to be on their guard, 
but they laughed at the advice, kept their gates open, and, it is said, at one of 
them put two snow men as mock sentinels. 



WARS WITH THE FRENCH 



125 




The attack at Schenectady. 



threescoj-e men, women, and children, took captive as many 
more, and left the place in ashes. 

The second war party of F'rencli and Indians left the St. 
Lawrence in January, 1690, spent three months struggling 
through tlie wilderness, and in ^larcli fell upon tlie village of 
Salmon Falls, laid it in ashes, ravaged the farms near by, mas- 
sacred some thirty men, women, and children, and carried off 
some fifty prisonei's. This deed done, the party hurried east- 
ward and fell in with the third party, from Quebec. The 
two then attacked and captured Fort Loyal (where Portland 
now stands), and massacred or captured most of the inhabit- 
ants. 

End of King William's War. — Smarting under the attacks 
of the Frencli and Indians, New England struck back. Its 
fleet, w^ith a few hundred militia under William Phips, cap- 
tured and pillaged Port Royal, and for a time held Acadia. A 
little army of troops from Connecticut and New York marched 
against Montreal, and a fleet and army under Phips sailed for 
Quebec. But the one went no farther than Lake Champlain, 



126 RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 

and Phips, after failing in an attack on Quebec, returned to 
Boston. 1 

For seven years more the French and Indians ravaged the 
frontier 2 before the treaty of Ryswick (riz'wick) put an end to 
the war in 1G97. 

Queen Anne's War. — In the short interval of peace which 
followed, the French made a settlement at Biloxi, as we liave 
seen, and founded Detroit (1701). In Europe the French king 
(Louis XIV) placed his grandson on the throne of Spain and, 
on the death of James II, recognized James's young son as King 
James III of England. For this, war was declared by Eng-' 
land in 1701. The struggle which followed was known abroad 
as the War of the Spanish Succession, but in our country as 
Queen Anne's War.^ 

Again the fi-ontier from Maine to Massachusetts was the 
scene of Indian raids and massacres. Haverhill was laid waste 
a second time,^ and Deerfield in the Connecticut valley was 
burned. 

The Attack on Deerfield was a typical Indian raid. The 
village, consisting of forty-one houses strung along a road, 
stood on the extreme northwestern frontier of Massachusetts. 
In the center of the place was a square wooden meetinghouse 
which, with some of the houses, was surrounded by a stockade 
eight feet high flanked on two corners by blockhouses.^ Late 

1 It was expected that the phmder of Quebec would pay the cost of the 
expedition. Faihire added to the debt of Massachusetts, and forced the colony 
to issue paper money or " bills of credit." This was the first time such money 
was issued by any of the colonies. (For picture of a bill of credit, see p. 204.) 

2 They captured, plundered, and burned York, were beaten in an attack on 
Wells, burned houses and tomahawked a hundred people at Durham, and burned 
the farmhouses near Haverhill. 

3 Queen Mary died in 1694, and King William in 1702. The crown then 
passed to Anne, sister of Mary. The war, therefore, was fought mostly during 
her reign. 

* Read Whittier's poem Pentucket, and his account in prose called TTic Bor- 
der War of 1708. 

^ Formidable as was the fort, the snow of a severe winter had been suffered 
to pile in drifts against the stockade till in places it nearly reached the top, so 
that the stockade was no longer an obstacle to the French and Indians. 



WARS WITH THE FRENCH 127 

in February, 1704, a band of French and Indians from Canada 
reached the town, hid in the woods two miles away, and just 
before dawn moved quietly across the frozen snoAv, rushed 
into the village, and, raising the warwhoop, beat in the house 
doors with ax and hatchet. A few of the wretched inmates 
escaped half-clad to the next village, but nine and forty men, 
women, and children were massacred, and one hundred more 
were led away captives.^ 

End of Queen Anne's War. — As the war went on, the English 
colonists twice attacked Port Royal in vain, but on the third 
attack in 1710 the place was captured. This time the English 
took permanent possession and renamed it Annapolis in honor 
of the queen. To Acadia was give/U the name Nova Scotia. En- 
couraged by the success at Port ^oyal, the greatest fleet ever 
seen, up to that time, in American waters was sent against 
Quebec, and an army of twenty-three hundred men marched 
by way of Lake Champlain to attack Montreal. 

But the fleet, having lost nine ships and a thousand men 
in the fog at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, returned to Bos- 
ton, and the commander of the army, hearing of this, marched 
back to Albany. When peace was made by the treaty of 
Utrecht (u'trekt) in 1713, France was forced to give up to Great 
Britain ^ Acadia, Newfoundland, and all claim to the territory 
drained by the rivers that flow into Hadson Bay (map, p. 134). 

The French build Forts in Louisiana, — Thirty-one years now 
passed before France and Great Britain were again at war, and 
in this period France took armed possession of the Mississippi 
valley, constructed a chain of forts from New Orleans to the 
Ohio, and built Forts Niagara and Crown Point. 

This meant that the French were determined to keep the 
British out of Louisiana and New France and confine them to 
the seacoast. But the French were also determined to regain 

iRead Parkman's H-df-Century of Conflict, Vol. I, pp. 52-66. 

2 Ever since the accession of King James I (1603) England and Scotland 
had been under the same king, but otherwise had been independent, each having 
its own Parliament. Now, in Queen Anne's reign, the two countries were united 
(1707) and made the one country of Great Britain, with one Parliament. 



128 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 




O C £ A JV 



Acadia, and on the island of Cape Breton they built Louis- 
burg, the strongest fortress in America. ^ 

King George's War. — Such was the state of affairs when in 
1744 Great Britain and France again went to war. As George 

II was then king of 
Great Britain, the colo- 



nists called the strife 
King George's War. 
The French now rushed 
down on Nova Scotia 
and attacked Annapolis. 
It seemed as if the whole 
of Nova Scotia would be 
Plan of Louisburg, 1745. conquered ; but instead 

the people of New England sent out a fleet and army and cap- 
tured Louisburg.^ 

When peace was made (1748), after two years more of 
lighting. Great Britain gave Loiiisl)urg back to France. 

The French in the Ohio Valley. — The war ended and no 
territory lost, the French at once laid plans to shut the British 
out of the Ohio valley, which France claimed because the Ohio 
River and its tributaries floweil '.nto the Mississippi. In 1749, 

1 It was durincT ti -rs of peace that Georgia was planted. The Span- 

iards at St ^ tiered this an intrusion into tlieir territory, and pro- 

tested -^11 Oglethorpe established a line of military posts from the 

Altaii.c-ci. Lo the St. Johns River. When word came that Great Britain and Spain 
were at war, Oglethorpe, aided by British ships, (1740) attacked St. Augustine. 
He failed to capture the city, and the Spaniards (1742) invaded Georgia. Ogle- 
thorpe, though greatly outnumbered, made a gallant defense, forced the Span- 
iards to withdraw, and (1743) a second time attacked St. Augustine, but failed to 
take it. 

- The expedition was undertaken without authority from the king. The 
army was a body of raw recruits from the farms, the shops, lumber camps, 
and fishing villages. The commander — Pepperell — was chosen because of his 
popularity, and knew no more about attacking a fortress than the humblest man 
in the ranks. Of cannon suitable to reduce a fortress the army had none. 
Nevertheless, by dint of hard work and good luck, and largely by means of 
many cannon captured from the French, the garrison was forced to surrender. 
Read Hawthorne's Grandfather'' s Chair, Part ii. Chap, vii ; also Chaps, viii 
and ix. 



WARS WITH THE FRENCH 



129 



therefore, a party of Frenclimen under Celoron (sa-lo-rawng') 
were sent to take formal possession of that region. ^ 

The Buried Plates. — Paddling up the St. Lawrence and 
Lake Ontario, these men carried their canoes around Niagara 
Falls, coasted along Lake Erie to a place near Chautauqua Lake, 
and going overland to the lake went down its outlet to the 
Allegheny River. There the men were drawn uj), the French 




r.is-\ \ v?i "i>i ivs NOV? \voM ; 

tow -pV .DV _ fov .: ; ■ . 

^T iyit.s si's I 1 ! 
•,f.\7 • l,K> TJJ.si r [ > 




;mT . OK, . ■ . 

V Y T.">v(!tv - 



One of the lead plates buried by Celoron. 

In the possession of the Virginia Historical Society. 

king was proclaimed owner of all the region drained by the 
Ohio, and a lead plate was buried at the foot of a tree. The 
inscription on the plate declared that the Ohio and all the streams 
that entered it and the land on both sides of them belonged 
to France. 

The party then passed down the Allegheny to the Ohio, and 
down the Ohio to the Miami, burying plates from time to time.^ 

1 Read Parkman's Montcalm and Wolfe, Vol. I, pp. 20-34, for a comparison 
of the French and English colonies in x\nieriea. 

"^ One of these plates was soon found by the Indians and sent to the governor 
of Pennsylvania. Two more in recent years were found projecting from the 
banks of the Ohio by boys while bathing or at play. 



130 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 



The French Forts. — Formal possession having been taken, 
the next step of the French was to buikl a log fort at Presque 
Isle (on Lake Erie where the city of Erie now is), and also 
P'orts Le Boeuf and Venango, on a branch of the Allegheny. 

The Ohio Company. — Bnt the English cokinists likewise 
claimed the Mississippi valley, by virtue of the old " sea to sea " 

grants, and the same year that 



V I ,, ,„tau,,„a 




SCALE OF «,LES H ' [^ ^ ^ ^ 



10 20 30 40 50 



I E ^' Celoron came down the Alle- 

gheny, they also prepared to 
take possession of the Ohio 
valley in a mucli more serious 
wa}^ The French were bury- 
ing plates and about to build 
forts; the English were about 
to plant towns and make settle- 
ments. 

Already in Pennsylvania 
and Virginia population was 
pushing rapidly westward. Al- 
ready English traders crossed 
the mountains and with their 
goods packed on horses fol- 
lowed the trails down the Ohio 
valley, going from village to 
village of the Indians and ex- 
changing their wares for furs. 

Convinced that the west- 
ward movement of trade and 
})0[)ulation was favorable for a 
speculation in land, some prominent men in Virginia^ formed 
the Ohio Company, and obtained from the British king a grant 
of five hundred thousand acres in the Ohio valley on condition 
that within seven years a hundred families should be settled on 
it and a fort built and garrisoned. 

1 Among the members of the company were Governor Dinwiddle of Vir- 
gini?., and two brothers of George Washington. 



Early forts in the Ohio valley. 



WARS WITH THE FRENCH 



131 



Governor Dinwiddle Alarmed — When, therefore, Governor 
Dinwiddle of \'irg-iuia heard that the French were building 
forts on the Allegheny, he became greatly alarmed, and sent a 
messenger to demand their witlidrawal. But the envoy, becom- 
ing friglitened, soon turned back. Clearly a man was wanted, 
and Dinwiddie selected George Washington, ^ a young man of 
twentv-oiie and an ol'Hcei- in the ^^irginia militia. 

Washington's First Public Service. — Washington was to 
find out the whereabouts of the Frencii, proceed to tlie French 
post, deliver a letter to 
the officer in command, 
and demand an answer. 
He was also to find out 
how many forts the 
French had built, liow 
far apart they were, how 
well garrisoned, and 
whether they were 
likely to be supported 
from Quebec. 

Having received 
these instructions, Wash- 
ington made his way in 
the depth of winter to 
Fort Le Bceuf, delivered the governor's letter, and brought 
back the refusal of the French officer to withdraw. ^ 

1 George Washington was born on February 22, 1732, at Bridges Creek, in Vir- 
ginia. At fourteen lie thought seriously of going to sea, but became a surveyor, 
and at sixteen was sent to survey part of the vast estate of Lord Fairfax which 
lay beyond the Blue Eidge. He lived the life of a frontiersman, slept in tents, 
ill cabins, in the open, and did his work so well that he was made a public sur- 
veyor. This position gave him steady occupation for three years, and a knowl- 
edge of woodcraft and men that stood him in good stead in time to come. When 
he was nineteen, his brother Lawrence procured him an appointment as an 
adjutant general of Virginia with the rank of major, a post he held in October, 
1758, when Ilinwiddie sent him, accompanied by a famous frontiersman, 
Christopher Gist, to find the P'rench. 

- On the way home Washington left his men in charge of the horses and 
baggage, put on Indian walking dress, and with ("hrislopher Gist set off by 




Washington at Fort Le Boeuf. 



MtM. DRIEF- 



-1) 



132 RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 

Fort Duquesne (1754). — Dinwiddle now realized that the 
French hekl the Alleglieny, and that if they were to be shut 
out of the Ohio valley something had to be done at once. 
He therefore sent a party of backwoodsmen to build a fort 
at the forks of the Ohio (where Pittsburg now is). While 
they were at work, the French came down the Allegheny, cap- 
tured the half-bnilt fort, and in place of it erected a larger 
one wliich they named Duquesne (doo-kan'). 

Great Meadows. — Meantime Washington had been sent 
with some soldiers to Wills Creek in western Maryland. When 
he heard of the capture of the fort, he started westward, cut- 
ting a road for wagons and cannon as he went, and camped 
for a time at Great Meadows, in southwestern Pennsylvania. 
There, one night, he received w^ord from Half King, a friendly 
Indian encamped with his band six miles away, that a French 
force was hidden near at hand. Washington with some forty 
men set off at once for the Indian camp, and reached it at day- 
light. A plan of attack was agreed on, and the march begun. 
On Washington's approach, the French flew to arms, and a 
sharp fight ensued in which the French commander Jumon- 
ville^ and nine of his men were killed. 

the nearest way through the woods on foot. "The following day," says Washing- 
ton, in his account of the journey, "just after we had passed a place called Mur- 
dering town, ... we fell in with a party of French Indians, who had lain in 
wait for us. One of them fired at Mr. Gist or me, not fifteen steps off, but 
fortunately missed." The next day they came to a river. "There was no way 
of getting over but on a raft, . . . but before we were half over we were jammed 
in the ice. ... I put out my setting pole to try and stop the raft that the ice 
might pass by, when the rapidity of the stream threw it with such force against 
the pole, that it jerked me out into ten feet of water, but I fortunately saved 
myself by catching hold of one of the raft logs." They were forced to swim to 
an island, and next day cro.ssed on the ice. Read Parkman's Montcalm and 
Wolfe, Vol. I, pp. 1.32-136. 

1 The French claimed that Jumonville was the bearer of a dispatch from 
the commander at the Ohio, that after the Virginians fired twice he made a sign 
that he was the bearer of a letter, that the firing ceased, that they gathered 
about him and while he was reading killed him and his compatiions. .Jumon- 
ville's death has therefore been called an "assassination" by French writers. 
The story rested on false statements made by Indians friendly to the French. In 
reality, there is ample proof that Jumonville made no attempt to deliver any 
message to Washington. 



WARS WITH THE FRENCH 133 

Fort Necessity. — At Great Meadows Washington now threw 
lip an intrenchnient called Fort Necessity. Some more men 
having reached him, he left a few at the fort and went on 
westward again. But he had not gone far when word came 
that the French were coming to avenge the death of Jumonville. 
Washington therefore fell back to the fort, where he was 
attacked and, on July 4, 1754, was forced to surrender, but 
was allowed to return to Virginia with his men. 

All previous wars between France and England had begun 
in the Old World, but now a great struggle had begun in the 
New. 

SUMMARY 

1. When William and INIary became king and queen of England, war 
with France followed. In the colonies this was called King AVilliam's 
War (1689-97). 

2. The French from Canada ravaged the New England frontier and 
burned Schenectady in New York. The English colonists captured Port 
Royal, but failed to take Montreal and Quebec. 

3. After four years of peace (1697-1701), war between France and 
England was renewed. This was called Queen Anne's War (1701-13). 

4. The great event of the war was the conquest of Acadia. Port 
Royal was named Annapolis; Acadia was called Nova Scotia. 

5. Thirty-one yeai'S of peace followed. During this time the French 
occupied the JMississippi valley, and built the fortress of Louisburg on Cape 
Breton Island. 

6. During King George's War (1744-48), Louisburg was captured, but 
it was returned by the treaty of peace. 

7. France now proceeded to occupy the Ohio valley, and built forts on 
a branch of the Allegheny. 

8. The British also claimed the Ohio valley, and started to build a fort 
on the site of Pittsburg, but were driven off by the French. 

9. Troops under George Washington, on their way toward the fort, 
defeated a small French force, but were themselves captured by the French 
at Fort Necessity (July 4, 1754). 




Longitude 



West from 75 Greenwich 70 

"l34 



CHAPTER XI 



THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA 



The Situation in 1754. — The French were now in armed 
possession of the Ohio valley. Their chain of forts bounded 
the British colonies from Lake Champlain to Fort Duquesne. 
Unless they were dislodged, all hope of colonial expansion west- 
ward was ended. To dislodge them meant war, and the cer- 
tainty of war led to a serious attempt to unite the colonies. 

By order of the Lords of Trade, a convention of delegates 
from the colonies ^ was held at Albany to secure by treaty and 
presents the friendship of the Six Nations of Indians ; it would 
not do to let those powerful tribes go over to the French in the 
coming war. After treating with the Indians, the convention 
proceeded to consider the question whether all the colonies 
could not be united for defense and for the protection of their 
interests. 

Franklin's Plan of Union. — One of the delegates was Benja- 
min Franklin, hi his newspaper, the 
Philadelphia Gazette, he had urged 
union, and he had put this device ^ at 
the top of an- account of the capture 
of the Ohio fort (afterward Duquesne) 
by the French. At the convention 
he submitted a plan of union calling 
for a president general and a grand council of representatives 
from the colonies to meet each year. They were to make 

1 New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, 
Pennsylvania, and Maryland were the only colonies represented. 

2 There was an old superstition that if a snake were cut into pieces and the 
pieces allowed to touch, they would join and the snake would not die. Franklin 
meant that unless the separate colonies joined they would be conquered. 

135 




136 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 



treaties with the Indians, regulate the affairs of the colonies as 
a whole, levy taxes, build forts, and raise armies. The conven- 
tion adopted the plan, but 
both the colonial legisla- 
tures and the Lords of 
Trade in London rejected 
it.i 

The Five Points of At- 
tack. — The French held 
live strongholds, which 
shut the British out of 
New France and Louisi- 
ana, and threatened tlie 
English colonies. 

1. Louisburg threat- 
ened New England and 
Nova Scotia. 

2. Quebec controlled 
the St. Lawrence. 

3. Crown Point (and 
later Ticonderoga), on 

Lake Champlain, guarded the water route to New York and 
threatened the Hudson valley. 

1 Franklin was born in Boston in 1706, the youngest son in a family of 
seventeen children. He went to work in his father's candle shop when ten years 
old. He was fond of reading, and by saving what little money he could secure, 
bought a few books and read them thoroughly. When twelve, he was bound 
apprentice to a brother who was a printer. At seventeen he ran away to Phil- 
adelphia, where he found work in a printing office, and in 1729 owned a news- 
paper of his own, which soon became the best and most entertaining in the 
colonies. His most famous publication is Poor Bichar<rs Ahminac. To this 
day the proverbs and coinmon sense sayings of Poor Richard are constantly 
quoted. Franklin was a good citizen: he took part in the founding of the first 
public library in Philadelphia, the formation of the first fire engine company, 
and the organization of the first militia, and he persuaded the authorities to light 
and pave streets and to establish a night watch. He is regarded as the founder 
of the University of Pennsylvania. Franklin was also a man of science. He 
discovered that lightning is electricity, invented the lightning rod, and wrote 
many scientific papers. He served in the legislature of Pennsylvania, and was 
made postmaster general for the colonies. All these things occurred before 1754. 




Fraukhn, at the age of 70. 



THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA 



137 



4. Niagara guarded the portage between Lakes Ontario 
and Erie, and threatened New York on the west. 

5. Fort Duquesne controlled the Ohio and threatened 
Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

The plan of the British was to 
strengthen their hold on Nova Scotia 
(Acadia), and to attack three of the 
French strongholds — Crown Point, Ni- 
agara, and Fort Duquesne — at the 
same time. 

Acadia. — Late in May, 1755, there- 
fore, an expedition set sail from Boston, 
made its way up the Bay of Fund}-, 
captured the French forts at the head 
of that bay, reduced all Acadia to Brit- 
ish rule, and tendered the oath of alle- 
giance to the French Acadians. This 
they refused to take, whereupon they 
were driven on board ships at the 
point of the bayonet and carried off 
and distributed among the colonies.^ 

Crown Point. — The army against 
Crown Point, composed of troops from 
the four New England colonies and 
New York, gathered at Albany, and 
under command of William Johnson 




Forts in northern New York. 

marched to the head of 
Lake George, where it beat the French under Dieskau 



1 About six thousand were carried off. Nowhere were they welcome. Some 
who were taken to Boston made their way to Canada. Such as reached South 
Carolina and Georgia were given leave to return ; but seven little boatloads were 
stopped at Boston. Others reached Louisiana, where their descendants still 
live. A few succeeded in returning to Acadia, no not fail to read Longfellow's 
poem Evangeline, a beautiful story founded on this removal of the Acadians. 
Was it necessary to remove the Acadians ? Read Parkman's Montcalm and 
Wolfe, Vol. I, pp. 234-241, 250-266, 276-284; read also "The Old French 
War," Part ii, Chap, viii, in Hawthorne's Grandfather'' s Chair. 

'^ Sir William Johnson was born in Ireland in 1715, and came to America in 
17;]8 to take charge of. his uncle's property in the Mohawk valley. Resettled 



138 RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 

(dees' kou), and built Fort William Henry; but it did not 
reach Crown Point. 

Niagara. — A third army, under General Shirley of Massa- 
chusetts, likewise set out from Albany, and pushing across New 
York reached Oswego, when all thought of attacking Niagara 
was abandoned. News had come of the crushing defeat of 
Braddoek. 

Braddock's Defeat. — Under the belief that neither colonial 
officers nor colonial troops were of much account, the mother 
country at the opening of the war sent over Edward Braddoek, 
one of her best officers, and two regiments of regulars. Brad- 
dock came to Virginia, appointed Washington one of his aids, 
and having gathered some provincial troops, set off from Fort 
Cumberland in Maryland for Fort Duquesne. The country to 
be traversed was a wilderness. No road led through the woods, 
so the troops were forced to cut one as they went slowly west- 
ward (map, p. 144). 

On July 9, 1755, when some eight miles from Fort Du- 
quesne, those in the van suddenly beheld what seemed to be an 
Indian coming toward them, but was really a French officer 
with a band of French and Indians at his back. The mo- 
ment he saw the British he stopped and waved his hat in the 
air, whereupon his followers disappeared in the bushes and 
opened fire. The British returned the fire and stood their 
ground manfully, but as they could not see tlieir foe, while 
their scarlet coats afforded a fine target, they were shot down 
by scores, lost heart, huddled together, and when at last Brad- 
dock was forced to order a retreat, broke and fled.^ 

about twenty miles west of Schenectady, and engaged in the Indian trade. He 
dealt honestly with the Indians, learned their language, attended their feasts, 
and, tomahawk in hand, danced their dances in Indian dress. He even took as 
his wife a sister of Brant, a Mohawk chief. So great was his influence with the 
Indians that in 1746 he was made Commissary of New York for Indian Affairs. 
In 1750 he was made a member of the provincial Council, went to the Albany 
convention in 1754, and later was appointed a major general. After the expedi- 
tion against Crown Point he was knighted and made Superintendent of Indian 
Affairs in North America. He died in 1774. 

1 It is sometimes said that Braddoek fell into an ambuscade. This is a mis- 



THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA 139 

Braddock was wounded just as the retreat began, and died 
as the army was hurrying back to Fort Cumberhmd, and lest 
the Indians should find his grave, he was buried in the road, 
and all traces of the grave were obliterated by the troops 
and wagons passing over it. From Fort Cumberland the 
British marched to Philadelphia, and the whole frontier was 
left to the mercy of the F^rench and Indians. 

French Victories. — War parties were sent out from Fort 
Duquesne in every direction, settlement after settlement was 
sacked, and before November the Indians were burning, plun- 
dering, massacring, scalping within eighty miles of Philadel- 
phia. Daring the two following years (1756—57), the French 
were all energy and activity, and the British were hard 
pressed.^ Oswego and F'ort William Henry were captured,-^ 
and the New York frontier was ravaged by the F'rench. 

British Victories (1758). — And now the tide turned. 
William Pitt, one of the great Englishmen of his day, was 
placed at the head of public affairs in (xreat Britain, and de- 
voted himself with all his energy to the conduct of the war. 
He chose better commanders, infused enthusiasm into men and 

take. He was surprised because he did not send scouts aliead of liis army ; but 
the Indians were not in ambusli. Braddock would not permit the troops to 
fight in Indian fashion from behind trees and buslies, but forced his men to 
form in platoons. A part of the regulars who tried to fight behind trees Brad- 
dock beat with his sword and forced into line. Some Virginians who sought 
shelter behind a huge fallen tree were mistaken for the enemy and fired on. In 
the fight and after it Washington was most prominent. Twice a horse was shot 
under him. Four bullets passed through his clotlies. When the retreat began, 
he rallied the fugitives, and brought off the wounded Braddock. 

2 War between France and Great Britain was declared in May, 175(). In 
Europe it was known as the Seven Years' War; in America as the French 
and Indian. On the side of France were Russia and Austria. On the side 
of Great Britain was Frederick the Gi'eat of Prussia. The fighting went on not 
only in America, but in the West Indies, on the European Continent, in the 
Mediterranean, and in India. 

3 When the colonial troops surrendered Fort William Henry, the French 
commander, Montcalm, agreed that they should return to their homes in safety. 
But the Indians, maddened by liquor, massacred a large immber, and carried off 
some six hundred prisoners. Montcalm finally secured the release of some four 
hundred. Cooper's novel The Last of the Mohicans treats of the war about Lake 
George. 



140 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 



officers alike, and the result was a series of victories. A fleet 
of frigates and battleships, with an army of ten thousand men, 
captured Louisburg. Three thousand provincials in open boats 

crossed Lake Ontario, 
r^ai!^€>i*y y^f^^tf^ ^iff^i^ 
5^i^ "^"^''-^^'^^^ 

^rt^ 'r»<^^/^.iryt ^.i^^Tfe^:^ ^y^i^Cr 

Letter written by Washington's mother. 
In the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical Society. 

met a like fate. An expedition under Prideaux (prid'o) and 
Sir William Johnson captured Fort Niagara ; an army under 
Amherst took Ticonderoga and Crown Point ; and a fleet and 
army led by Wolfe, a young officer distinguished at Louisburg, 
took Quebec. 

Quebec, 1759. — The victor}^ at Quebec was the greatest of 
the war. The fortress was the strongest in America, and stood 



took Fort Frontenac, 
and thus cut communi- 
cation between Que- 
bec and the Ohio. A 
third expedition, un- 
der Forbes and Wash- 
ington, marched slowly 
across Pennsylvania, to 
find Fort Duquesne in 
ruins and the French 
gone.i 

Victories of 1759. — 
Two of the five strong- 
holds (Louisburg and 
Fort Duquesne) were 
now under the British 
flag, and the next year 
(1759) the three others 



^ Instead of using the road cut by Braddock, Forbes chose another route, 
(map, p. 144), and spent much time in road making. Late in September he was 
still fifty miles from Fort Duquesne, and decided to go into winter quarters. But 
the French attacked Forbes and were beaten; and from some prisoners Forbes 
learned that the garrison at Fort Duquesne was weak. A picked force of men, 
with Washington and his Virginians in the lead, then hurried forward, and 
reached the fort to find it abandoned. A new stockade was built near by, and 
named Fort Pitt, and the place was named Pittsburg. 



THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA 



141 




CAPTURE OF 

QLEBEC 

_\ 12 J 4 6 



on the crest of a high cliff which rose from the waters of the 
St. Lawrence, The French coniinantler, Montcalm, was a brave 
and able soldier. But (me night in September, 1759, the Brit- 
ish general, Wolfe, led. his 
army up tlie steep cliff west 
of the city, and in the morn- 
ing formetl in battle array on 
the Plains of Abraham. A 
great battle followed. Both 
AVolfe and Montcalm were 
killed ; but the British won, 
and Quebec has ever since 
been under their flag. Mont- 
real fell the next j^ear (17(30), 
and Canada was conquered. ^ 

Spain cedes Florida to Great Britain. — In the spring of 17G1, 
France made proposals of peace; but while tlie negotiation 
was under way, Spain allied herself with France, and was soon 
dragged into the war. The British thereupon captured Havana 
and jNIanila (1702), and thus became for a short time masters of 
Cuba and the Philippines. A few weeks later preliminary 
articles of peace were signed (November, 1762), and the linal 
(or definitive) treaty in 17(io. Spain ceded Florida to Great 
Britain in return for Cuba. News of the capture of the Philip- 
pines was not received till after the preliminary treaty was 
signed ; tlie islands were therefore returned without any equiv- 
alent.2 

The French quit America. — By the treaties of 17612 and 
1763 France withdrew from America. 

To Great Britain were ceded (1) all of New France (or 
Canada), Cape Breton Island, and all the near-by islands save 
two small Ducsnear Newfoundland, and (2) all of Louisiana east 

^ Read Parkman's Montcalm and Wnjfe, Vol. II, pp. 28rt-_>97. The fall of 
Quebec is treated in fietiim in Gilbert I'arker's Seats of the Mi(ihtij. 

- When Manila wa.^ captured, all private property was saved from plunder 
by the promise of a ransom of £1,000,000. One half was paid hi money, and 
the rest in bills on the Spanish treasury. Spain never paid these bills. 




85 Longitude 80 West from 75 Greenwich 70 

142 



THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA 143 

of the ^lississippi save the city of New Orleans and a little 
territory above and below the city. 

To recompense Spain for her loss in the war, France ceded 
to her New Orleans and the neighboring territory, and all of 
Lonisiana W3st of the ^Mississippi. 

The Province of Quebec. — Tl:e acquisition of New France 
made it necessary for Great Britain to provide for its govern- 
ment. To do this she drew a line about the part inhabited by 
whites, and established the province of Quebec. The south 
boundary of the new province should be carefully observed, 
for it became the northern boundary of New York and New 
Enghmd. 

The Proclamation Line. — The proclamation which created 
the province of Quebec also drew a line " beyond the sources 
of the rivers which flow into the Atlantic from the west and 
northwest " : beyond this line no governor of any of the colo- 
nies was to grant land. This meant that the king cut off the 
claims to western lands set forth in the charters of Massa- 
chusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, Carolina, and Georgia. The 
territory so cut off was for the present to be reserved for the 
Indians. 

The Provinces of East and West Florida. — The proclamation 
of 176-3 also created two other provinces. One called East 
Florida was so much of the present state of Florida as lies east 
of the Apalachicola River. West Florida was all the territory 
received from Spain west of the Apalachicola. ^ 

To Georgia was annexed the territory between the St. 
Marys River, the proclamation line, and the Altamaha. 

The Frontier. — British settlements did not yet reach the 
Allegheny Mountains. In New York they extended a short 
distance up the Mohawk River. In Pennsylvania the little 
town of Bedford, in Maryland Fort Cumberland, and in Vir- 
ginia the Allegheny ]Mountains marked tlie frontier (p. 144). 

1 The north boundary was the parallel of 31° ; but in 17G4 West Florida was 
enlarged, and the north boundary became the parallel of latitude that passes 
through the mouth of the Yazoo River. 



144 



RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 



The Wilderness Routes and Forts. — Tluoiigli the wilderness 
lying beyond the frontier ran several lines of forts intended 
to protect routes of communication. Thus in New York the 
route up the Mohawk to Oneida Lake and down Oswego 
River to Lake Ontario was protected by Forts Stanwix, 
Brewerton, and Oswego. From Fort Oswego the route con- 
tinued by water to Fort Niagara at the mouth of the river of 



CANADA 



SCALE OF MILE". ^-- 

5 M -in A, Jn' lUirA?, 




»^-_i ^ 



Wilderness routes and forts. 



that name, then along the Niagara River and by Lake Erie to 
Presque Isle, then by land to Fort Le Boeuf, then by river 
to Fort Pitt. 

From Fort Pitt two roads led back to the frontier. One 
leading to the Potomac valley was that cut from Fort Cum- 
berland by Braddock (in 1755) and known as Braddock's Road. 
The other to Bedford on the Pennsylvania frontier was cut 
by General Forbes (in 1758). 

Along the shores of the Great Lakes were a few forts built 



THE FRENCH DRIVEN FROM AMERICA 



145 



by the French and now held by the British. These were San- 
dusky, Detroit, Mackinaw, and St. Joseph. 

Pontiac's War. — Between tliis chain of forts and the Mis- 
sissippi River, in the region given up by France, lived many 
tribes of Indians, old friends of the French and bitter enemies 
of the British. The old enmity was kept aflame by the French 
Canadians, who still carried on the fur trade with the Indians. ^ 




Old Fort Niagara. 

When, therefore, Pontiac, a chief of the Ottawas, in 17G2 
sent out among the Indian nations amijassadors with the war 
belt of wampum, and tomahawks stained red in token of war, 
the tribes everywhere responded to the cnll."^ From the Ohio 

1 They told the Indians that the British would soon be driven out, and tliat 
the :Mississippi River and Canada would again be in French hands ; that the 
British were trying to destroy the Indian race, and for this purpose were build- 
ing forts and making settlements. 

2 Read Parkman's Conspiracy of Pontiac ; Kirk Munroe's At War v:ith 
Pontiac. 



146 RIVALS OF THE ENGLISH 

and its tributaries to the upper lakes, and southward to the 
mou^i of tlie Mississippi, they banded against the British, and 
early in 1763, led by Pontiac, swept down on the frontier forts. 
Detroit was attacked, Presque Isle was captured, Le Boeuf and 
Venango Avere burned to the ground, Fort Pitt was besieged, 
and the frontier of Pennsylvania laid waste. Of fourteen 
posts from Mackinaw to Oswego, all but four were taken by 
the Indians. It seemed that not a settler would be left west 
of the Susquehanna ; but a little army under Colonel Bouquet 
beat the Indians, cleared the Pennsylvania frontier, and relieved 
Fort Pitt in 1763; another army in 1764 passed along the lake 
shore to Detroit and quieted the Indians in that I'egion, while 
Bouquet (1764) invaded the Oliio country, forced the tribes to 
submit, and released two hundred white prisoners. 

SUMMARY 

1. The war which followed the defeat of Washington is known as the 
French and Indian War. 

2. Fearing that the French Acadians in Nova Scotia would become 
troublesome, the British dispersed them among tlie colonies. ■ 

3. The strongholds of the French were Louisburg, Quebec, Crown 
Point, Niagara, and Fort Diiquesne. 

4. The first expedition against Fort Duquesne ended in Braddock's 
defeat; expeditions against other strongholds came to naught, and during 
the early years of the war the French carried everything before them. 

.5. But when Pitt rose to power in England, the tide turned : Louis- 
burg and Fort Duquesne were captured (in 1758) ; Niagara, Ticonderoga, 
Crown Point, and Quebec were taken (in 1759); and Montreal fell in 1760. 

6. Spain now joined in the war, whereupon Great Britain seized Cuba 
and the Philippines. 

7. Peace was made in 1762-63 : the conquests from Spain were restored 
to hei', but Florida was ceded to Great Britain ; and France gave up her 
possessions in North America. 

8. Canada, Cape Breton, and all Louisiana east of the Mississippi, save 
New Orleans and vicinity, went to Great Britain. 

9. New Orleans and Louisiana west of the Mississippi went to Spain. 

10. Great Britain then established the new provinces of Quebec and 
East and West Florida, and drew the Proclamation Line. 

11. A great Indian uprising, known as Pontiac's War, followed the 
peace, but was quickly put down. < 



CHAPTER XII 
THE QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 

The French and Indian War gave the colonists valuable 
training as soldiers, freed them from the danger of attack l)y 
their French neighbors, and so made them less dependent on 
Great Britain for protection. But the mother country took no 
account of this, and at once began to do things which in ten 
years' time drove the colonies into rebellion. 

Causes of the Quarrel. — We are often told that taxation 
without representation was the cause of tlie Revolution. It 
was indeed one cause, and a very important one, but not the 
only one by any means. The causes of the Revolution, as 
stated in the Declaration of Independence, were man}^ and 
arose chiefly from an attempt of the mother country to (1) en- 
force the laws concerning trade, ("2) quarter royal troops in the 
colonies,! and (3 ) support the troops b}" taxes imposed witliout 
consent of the colonies. 

The Trade Laws were enacted by Parliament between 1650 
and 1764 for tiie purpose of giving Great Britain a monopoly 
of colonial trade. By their provisions — 

1. No goods were to be carried from any port in Europe to 
America unless first landed in England. 

2. Many articles of colonial i)roduction, as tobacco, cotton, 
silk, indigo, furs, rice, sugar, could not be sent to any country 
save England ; but lumber, salt fish, and provisions could be 
sent also to France, Spain, or other foreign countries. 

3. To help English wool manufacture, the colonists were 
forbidden to send their WH)olen goods or hats to any country 
whatever, or even from colony to colony. 

^That is, compel the colonists to furnish quarters — rooms or houses — for 
the troops to live in. Read Parkmau's Montcalm and Wvlfe, Vol. I, pp. 439-440. 

147 



148 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOx\ 

4. To help English iron manufacture, the colonists were 
forbidden to make steel. 

"5. To help the British West Indies, a heavy duty was laid 
(in 1733) on sugar or molasses imported from any other than 
a British possession. 

Smuggling. — Had these laws been rigidly enforced tliey 
would have been severe indeed, but they could not be rigidly 
enforced. They were openly violated, and smuggling became 
so common in every colony ^ that the cost of collecting the 
revenue was much more than the amount gathered. 

This smuggling the British government now determined 
to end. Accordingly, in 1764, the colonies were ordered to 
stop all unlawful trade, naval vessels were stationed off the 
coast to seize smugglers, and new courts, called vice-admiralt}^ 
courts, were set up in which smugglers when caught were to 
be tried without a jury.^ 

A Standing Army. — It was further proposed to send over 
ten thousand regular soldiers to defend the colonies against 
the Indians and against any attack that might be made by 

1 In order to detect and seize smugglers the crown had resorted to "writs 
of assistance." The law required that every ship bringing goods to America 
should come to some established port and that her cargo should be reported at 
the customhouse. Instead, the smugglers would secretly land goods elsewhere. 
If a customs officer suspected this, he could go to court and ask for a search 
warrant, stating the goods for which he was to seek and the place to be 
searched. But this would give the smugglers warning and they could remove 
the goods. What the officers wanted was a general warrant good for any goods 
in any place. This writ of assistance, as it was called, was common in England, 
and was issued in the colonies about 1754. In 1760 King George II died, and 
all writs issued in his name expired. In 1761, therefoi'e, application was made 
to the Superior Court of Massachusetts for a new writ of assistance to run in 
the name of King George III. Sixty merchants opposed the issue, and James 
Otis and Oxenbridge Thacher appeared for the merchants. The speech of Otis 
was a famous plea, sometimes called the beginning of colonial resistance ; but 
the court granted the writ. 

■^ These acts are complained of in the Declaration of Independence. The 
king is blamed " For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world," that is, 
enforcing the trade laws ; again, "He has erected a multitude of new offices, 
and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people," that is to say, the 
vice-admiralty judges and naval officers sworn to act as customhouse officers and 
seize smugglers. In doing this duty these officers did " harass our people." 



THE QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 



149 



France or Spain. The colonists objected to the troops on 
the ground that they had not asked for sokliers and did not 
need any. 

The Stamp Act. — As the cost of keep- 
ing- the troops woukl be very great, it was 
decided to raise part of tlie money needed 
b}^ a stamp tax which Parliament enacted 
in 1765. The Stamp Act applied not only 
to the thirteen colonies, but also to Can- 
ada, Florida, and the West Indies, and 
was to take effect on and after November 
1, 1765.1 

1. Every piece of vellum or paper on 
which was written any legal document 
for use in any court was to be charged 
with a stamp duty of from three pence to 
ten pounds. 

2. Many kinds of documents not used 
in court, and newspapers, almanacs, etc., 
were to be written or printed only on 
stamped paper made in England and sold at prices fixed by 
law. 

The money raised by the stamp tax was not to be taken to 
Great Britain, but was to be spent in the colonies in the pur- 
chase of food and supplies for the troops. 

The Colonies deny the Right of Parliament to tax them. — 
But the colonists cared not for what use the money was in- 
tended. " No taxation without representation," was their cry. 




British soldier. 



1 AVliile the Stamp Act was under debate in Parliament, Colonel Rarrt:^, who 
fought under Wolfe at Louisburg, opposed it. A member had spoken of the 
colonists as "children planted by our care, nourished by our indulgence, and 
protected by our arms." "They planted by your care!" said Barrf^. "No, 
your oppression planted them in America. Nourished by your indulgence ! 
They grew up by your neglect of them. They protected by your arms ! These 
Sons of Liberty have nobly taken up arms in your defense." The words " Sons 
of Liberty" were at once seized on, and used in our country to designate the 
opponents of the stamp tax. Read "The Stamp Act" in Hawthorne's Grand- 
father's Chair. 



150 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

They cast no votes for a member of Parliament ; therefore, 
they said, they were not represented in Parliament. Not 
being represented, they could not be taxed by Parliament, 
because taxes could lawfully be laid on them only by their 
chosen representatives.^ 

In the opinion of the British people the colonists were 
represented in Parliament. British subjects in America, it was 
held, were just as much represented in the House of Commons 
as were the people of Manchester or Birmingham, neither of 
which sent a member to the House. Each member of the 
House represented not merely the few men who elected him, 
but all the subjects of the British crown everywhere. ^ 

The Colonies Resist. — Resistance to the Stamp Act began 
in Virginia, where the House of Burgesses passed a set of 
resolutions written by Patrick Henry. ^ In substance they 



1 The colonists did not deny the right of Parliament to regulate the trade 
of the whole British Empire, and to lay "external taxes" — customs duties — 
for the purpose of regulating trade. But this stamp tax was an "internal 
tax" for the purpo.se of raising revenue. 

2 Parliament was divided then, as now, into two houses — the Lords, con- 
sisting of nobles and clergy, and the Commons, consisting then of two members 
elected by each county and two elected by each of certain towns. Some change 
was made in the list of towns thus represented in Parliament before the sixteenth 
century, but no change had been made since, though many of them had lost all 
or most of their population. Thus Old Sarum had become a green mound ; its 
population had all drifted away to Salisbury. A member of the Commons, 
so the story runs, once said : "I am the member from Ludgesshall. I am also 
the population of Ludgesshall. AVhen the sheriff's writ comes, I announce 
the election, attend the poll, deposit my vote for myself, sign the return, and 
here I am." When a town disappeared, the landowner of the soil on which 
it once stood appointed the two members. Such towns were called "rotten 
boroughs," " pocket boroughs," "nomination boroughs." 

3 Patrick Henry was born in Virginia in 1736. As a youth he was dull and 
indolent and gave no sign of coming greatness. After two failures as a store- 
keeper and one as a farmer he turned in desperation to law, read a few books, 
and with difficulty passed the examination necessary for admittance to the bar. 
Henry had now found his true vocation. Business came to him, and one day in 
1763 he argued the weak (but popular) side of a case with such eloquence that 
he carried court and jury with him, and it is said was carried out of the court- 
house on the shoulders of the people. He was now famous, and in 17(55 was 
elected to the Virginia House of Burgesses to represent the county in which he 
had lived, just in time to take part in the proceedings on the Stamp Act. His part 



THE QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 



151 



declared that the colonists were British subjects and were not 
bound to obey any law taxing them without the consent of 
their own lesrislatures. 




Patrick Henry addressing the Virginia Assembly. From an old prini. 

Massachusetts came next with a call for a congress of dele- 
gates from the colonies, to meet at New York in October. 

The Stamp Act Congress, 1765. — Nine of the colonies sent 
delegates, and after a session of twenty days the representa- 
tives of six signed a declaration of rights and grievances. 

The declaration of rights set forth that a British subject 
could not be taxed unless he was represented in the legislature 
that imposed the tax ; that Americans were not represented in 
Parliament ; and that therefore the stamp tax was an attack on 
the rights of Englishmen and the liberty of self-government. 

wag to move the resolutions and support them in a fiery and elnciuent speech, 
of which one passage has been preserved. Recalling the fate of tyrants of otlier 
times, he exclaimed, " Csesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his Cromwell, and 
George the Third — ." " Treason ! treason ! " shouted the Speaker. " Treason ! 
treason! " shouted the members. To which Henry answered, "and (ieorge the 
Third may profit by their example. If this be treason, make the most of it." 

McM. BRIEF — 10 



152 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



Tlie grievances complained of were trial without jury, re- 
strictions on trade, taxation without representation, and espe- 
cially the stamp tax. 

The Stamp Distributers. — In August, 1765, the names of 
the men in America chosen to be the distributers or sellers of 
the stamps and stamped paper were made public, and then the 
people began to act. Demands were made that the distribu- 
ters should resign. When they refused, the people rose and 
by force compelled them to resign, and riots occurred in the 
chief seaboard towns from New Hampshire to Maryland. At 
Boston the people broke into the house of the lieutenant 
governor and destroyed his fine library and papers. 







IPENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL; 

AND 

WEEKLY ADVERTISER. 



EXPIRING: In Hopes of a Refurreaiori to Life again. 




AM forry to be obliged I 
CO acquainc my Read- 
er), that as TheSrA 
Act, Kfear'd to be ob 
ligatofv upon us after | 
thcFrrfipf Nifveutbrr 
Tuing, (ihc/ttfd/T'o-i 
-w) jhe pjbli{her of this Paper unable tq\ 
Tzv ihc iSurthfn, has thought it expedk-nii 
:o STOP awhile, inofdcr lodelibcratc, wi 
ih^rranyMeThods can be found to elude i 
Ch-iAS forged tor us, and efcape the inl'up-^ 
Dortablc Slavery ; which it is liopei), frcn 
:hc]uft Krprcfertaiion^ now m-de a:;ainf 
thee Aft, niiy be ct'.ecteJ. ^VJT1 while 
I ifiOft earne-LUy Rcqu;:l every InJividu=l : 



■ rji&.tj, ihe '"ore 
-^arv No FiUt»aed fomytA i^ 

rtte CJoiBDy, Bui :iUlio.:gh i 
ite<I«d bj Ihe Indulgei'cc «f rl 






( :ill >Ti Infx.nt 
fittA byilie R 
sHmI 10 the ti 

ihr h,ft An'-n- 



I (hui ■sp t 



> mjv be |.il 
ePrc(« Old. ■I') 



Cf i broujbt by ihe laA txJI Ua 
ihc1>,re l[Hc»d, that tbe Aigc 
>(y. and dutirnl t>ax jg&inft til ■ 
cept Eigbad u\i Fn»c<. pme* I 



4MgmJI 17, On Thnrflif MiheVing'* 



I 111- Am 



, Efqn 






• lUh. 



aiik*«fib>C body, 



«1», for ihrrf «de 
fuktiiry from mIbk biMefrrl u"< 
* ((i'-ie houlet ol (heir fellow- lubjcfli in Ameri^i'. 
vt oj « Uiur Jrom «> >^fr „ ti-e f^/./nA- *a-t,« 

dclt^Jwtm lt4 4'ttiiir cairf, JaaM^rj t, i76t. 
^')n my lift 1 uriaainlnlyuu tlut wc did ai Ikft r 
ict Mjdure. 7h« jfroy fcii tnce cc»(r»wrd ibe Ari 
rccuDi^ torlheNibob, of i«a,fiool. menuc i ^a 
'cirenop under ordm (o utack intJlher elrrf, i 
J**£or conliguwi. IJ rhlicounlryi bwh cblel. lui 
unuili m»ml.ii.eil m iadependencj- t>f lb« Wibofc n 
'» i n oly on ar^ounl (J rbe inipt ncinbtf »ogd« tbey I 
E pbdclfcd of. Tou cci1]rtfl|> li>Tc bmd b<4Di« of Okc I 



On November 1, 1765, the Stamp Act went into force, but 
not a stamp or a piece of stamped paper could be had in any 
of the thirteen colonies. Some of the newspapers ceased to 
be printed, the last issues appearing with black borders, 



THE QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 



153 



death's heads, and obituary notices. But soon all were regu- 
larly issued without stamps, and even the courts disregarded 
the law.^ 

The Stamp Act Repealed, 1766. — Meantime the merchants 
had been signing agreements not to import, 
and the people not to buy, any British goods 
for some months to come. American trade 
with the mother country was thus cut off, 
thousands of workmen in Great Britain were 
thrown oat of employment, and Parliament 
was beset with petitions from British mer- 
chants praying for a repeal of the stamp tax. 
To enforce the act without bloodshed was im- 
possible. In INIarch, 1766, therefore. Parlia- 
ment repealed the Stamp Act.^ Bat at the 
same time it enacted another, known as the 
Declaratory Act, in which it declared that 
it had i)ower to " legislate for the colonies 
in all cases whatsoever." 

The Townshend Acts, 1767. — In their joy 
over the I'epeal of the Stamp Act, the colonists 
gave no heed to the Declaratory Act. But 
the very next year Charles Townshend, then 
minister of finance, persuaded Parliament to 
pass several laws since known as the Townshend Acts. One 
of these forbade the legislature of New York to pass any more 
laws until it had made provision for the royal troops quar- 
tered in New York city. Another laid taxes on all paints, 

1 In Canada and the West Indies the stamp tax was not resisted, and there 
stamps were used. 

2 When Parliament was considering tlie repeal, Benjamin Franklin, then in 
London as agent for Pennsylvania and other colonies, was called before a com- 
mittee and examined as to the state of colonial affairs ; read his answers in 
Hart's American History told hy Contemporaries, Vol. II, pp. 407-411. Pitt in 
a great speech declared, " The kingdom has no right to lay a tax on the colonies, 
because they are unrepresented in Parliament. I rejoice that America has 
resisted." Edmund Burke, one of the greatest of Irish orators, took the same 
view. 




Lantern used at cele- 
bration of the re- 
peal of the Stamp 
Act. 

In tlie GUI Statehouse, 
Bo>ton. 



154 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



paper, tea, and certain other articles imported into the colo- 
nies. ^ 

The Colonies again Resist. — None of the new taxes were 
heavy, but again the case was one of taxation without repre- 
sentation, so the legislature of Massachusetts sent a letter to 
the other colonial legislatures asking them to unite and consult 
for the protection of their rights. This letter gave so great 
offense to the mother country that Massachusetts was ordered 
to rescind her act, and the governors of the other colonies to 

see that no notice was taken of it.^ 
And now the royal troops for the de- 
fense of the colonies began to arrive. 
But Massachusetts, North Carolina, 
and South Carolina refused to find 
them quarters, and for such refusal 
the legislature of North Carolina was 
dissolved. 

The Boston Massacre. — At Bos- 
ton the troops were repeived with 
every mark of hatred and disgust, 
and for three years were subjected 
to every sort of insult and indignity, 
which they repaid in kind. The 
troops led riotous lives, raced horses 
on Sunday on the Common, played 
"Yankee Doodle" before the church doors, and more than once 
exchanged blows with the citizens. In one encounter the troops 
fired on the crowd, killing five and wounding six. This was 




Boston Massacre Monument. 
In Boston Coiimion. 



i In the Declaration of Independence the king is charged with giving his 
assent to acts of Parliament " For susijending our own legislatures," and " For 
quartering large bodies of armed troops among us," and " For imposing taxes 
on us without our consent." 

- For refusing to obey, the legislature of Massachusetts was dissolved, as 
were the assemblies of Maryland and Georgia for having approved it, and that 
of New York for i-efusing supplies to the royal troops, and that of Virginia for 
complaining of the treatment of New York. Read Fiske's American Bevohition, 
Vol. I, pp. 28-36, 39-52. 



THE QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 155 

the famous "Boston Massacre," and produced over all the land 
a deep impression.^ 

Townshend Acts Repealed, 1770. — Once more the resistance 
of the colonies — chietly through refusing to buy British 
goods — was successful, and Parliament took off all the Town- 
shend taxes except that on tea. This import tax of three pence 
a pound on tea was retained in order that the right of Parlia- 
ment to tax the colonies might be asserted. But the colonists 
stood firm; they refused to buy tea shipped from Great Britain, 
but smuggled it from Holland.^ 

Tea Tax Juggle. — By 1773 the refusal to buy tea fr(un the 
mother country was severely felt by the East India Company, 
whicli had brought far more tea to Great Britain than it could 
dispose of. Parliament then removed the export duty of 
twelve pence a pound which had formerly been paid in Great 
Britain on all tea shipped to the colonies. Thus after paying 
the three-pence tax at the American custondiouses, the tea 
could be sold nine pence a pound cheaper than before. 

The Tea not Allowed to be Sold. — The East India Company 
now quickly selected agents in the chief seaports of tlie colonies, 
and sent shiploads of tea consigned to them for sale.^ But the 

^The two regiments of British troops in Boston were now removed, on 
demand of the people, to a fort in the harbor. The soldiers who fired the 
shots were tried for miirder and acquitted, save two who received light sentences. 

2 One of the vessels sent to stop smuggling was the schooner Gaspee. Hav- 
ing run aground in Narragansett Bay (June, 1772), she was boarded by a party 
of men in eight boats and burned. The Virginia legislature appointed a " com- 
mittee of correspondence," to find out the facts regarding the destruction of 
the Gasj^ee and " to maintain a correspondence with our sister colonies." This 
plan of a committee to inform the other colonies what was happening in Virginia, 
and obtain from them accurate information as to what they were doing, was 
at once taken up by Massachusetts and other colonies, each of which appointed 
a similar committee. Such committees afterward proved to be the means of 
revolutionary crganization. Read Fiske's American Bevoliition, Vol. I, pp. 
76-80. 

3 Parliament had given the company permission to do this. The company 
had long possessed the monopoly of trade with the East Indies, and the sole 
right to bring tea from China to Great Britain. Before 1778, however, it was 
obliged to sell the tea in Great Britain, and the business of exporting tea to the 
colonies had been carried on by merchants who bought fi'om the company. 



156 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



colonists were not tempted by cheap tea ; they were determined 
that Parliament should not tax them. They therefore forced 
the agents to resign their commissions, and when the tea ships 
arrived, took possession of them. At Philadelphia the ships 
were sent back to London. At Charleston the tea was landed 
and stored for three years and then seized and sold by the 
state of South Carolina. At Annapolis the people forced the 
owner of a tea ship to go on board and set fire to his ship ; 

vessel and cargo were 
m — ■* «L thus consumed. At 

Boston the people 
wished the tea sent 
back to London, and 
when the authorities 
refused to allow this, 
a party of men dis- 
guised as Indians 
boarded the ships and 
threw the tea into the 
water. ^ 

The Intolerable 
Acts. — Parliament 
now determined to 
punish the colonies, 
and for this purpose 
enacted five laws called 
by the colonists the 
Throwing the tea overboard, Boston. Intolerable Acts : — 

1. The port of Boston was shut to trade and commerce till 
the colony should pay for the tea destroyed. 

2. The charter of Massachusetts was altered. 

3. Persons who were accused of murder done in executing 
the laws might be taken for trial to another colony or to Great 
Britain. 

4. The quartering of troops on the people was authorized. 

1 Read "The Tea Partv " in Hawthorne's Grandfather'' s Chair. 




THE QUARREL WITH THE MOTHER COUNTRY 157 

5. The boundaries of the province of Quebec were extended 
to the Ohio and ]\Jississip2)i rivers. As Massachusetts, Con- 
necticut, and Virginia cLaimed parts of this territory, they 
regarded tlie Quebec Act as anotlier act of tyranny. ^ 

The First Continental Congress. — Because of the passage 
of these Livvs, a C-ongress suggested by Virginia and called by 
Massachusetts met in Carpenter's Hall in Philadelpliia in Sep- 
tember, 1774, and issued a declaration of rights and grievances, 
a petition to the king, and addresses to the people of Gi'eat 
Britain, to tlie people of Canada, and to the people of the col- 
onies. It also called a second Congress to meet on ^lay 10, 
1775, and take action on the result of the petition to the king. 

lAU the Intolerable Acts are referred to in the Declaration of Indei3en<l- 
ence. See if you can tind the references. 

SUMMARY 

1. After the French and Indian War Great Britain determined to 
enforce the laws of trade. 

2. It also decided that the colonies should bear a part of the cost of 
their defense, and for this purpose a stamp tax was levied. 

3. The right of Parliament to levy such a tax was denied by tlie col- 
onists on the ground that they were not represented in Parliament. 

4. The attempt to enforce the tax led to resistance, and a congress of 
the colonies (17G5) issued a declaration of rights and grievances. 

.5. The tax was re2Jealed in ITOfj, but Parliament at the same time 
asserted its right to tax. 

6. The Townshend Acts (1767) tried to raise a revenue by import 
duties on goods brought into the colonies. At the same time the arrival 
of the troops for defense of the colonies caused new trouble; in Poston the 
people and the troops came to blows (1770). 

7. The refusal of the colonists to buy the taxed articles led to the 
repeal of all the taxes except that on tea (1770). 

8. The colonists still refused to buy taxed tea, whereupon Parlia- 
ment enabled the East India Company to send over tea for sale at a lower 
price than before. 

9. The tea was not allowed to be sold. In Boston it was destroyed. 

10. As a punishment Parliament enacted the five Intolerable Acts. 

11. The First Continental Congress (1774) thereupon petitioned for 
redress, and called a second Congress to meet the next year. 



CHAPTER XIII 



THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE BEGUN 



Lexington, 1775. — When the 
met (May 10, 1775), the mother 



iHOLY 




OLD and N I' \v 

[rESTAMENT§: 

r R ANS L AT IONS 

IJii,_,r„K (;, n,j,jrfd and Rcvifcd. 
^ __AFP<'«itcJ tL be Read in Cll L R C H , s 

;4 ^.-V^ 



John Hancock's Bible. 

Now in the Old Stateliouse, Boston. 



second Continental Congress 
country and her colonies had 
come to blows. 

The people of Massachu- 
setts, fearing that this might 
happen, had begun to col- 
lect and hide arras, cannon, 
and powder. General Gage, 
the royal governor of Mas- 
sachusetts and commander 
of the Ijritish troops in Bos- 
ton, was told that military 
supplies were concealed at 
Concord, a town some twenty 
miles from Boston (map, p. 
1 68). Now it happened that 
in April, 1775, two active 
patriots, Samuel Adams ^ 
and John Hancock, were at 
Lexington, a town on the 
road from Boston to Con- 
cord. Gage determined to 
strike a double blow at the 



1 Samuel Adams was born in Boston in 1722, graduated from Harvard Col- 
lege, and took so active a part in town politics that he has been called "the Man 
of the Town Meeting." From 1765 to 1774 he was a member of the Massachu- 
setts Assembly, and for some years its clerk. He was a member of the committee 
sent to demand the removal of the soldiers after the massacre of 1770, and of that 
sent to demand the resignations of the men appointed to receive the tea, and pre- 
sided over the town meeting that demanded the return of the tea ships to England. 
He was a member of the Continental Congress, and signed the Declaration of 
Independence. After the Revolution he was lieutenant governor and then gov- 
ernor of Massachusetts, and died in 1803. 

158 



THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDE.NX'E BEGUN 



159 



patriots by sending troops to arrest Adams and Hancock and 
destroy the military stores. On the evening of April 18, ac- 
cordingly, eight hundred regulars left Bos- 
ton as quietly as possible. Gage hoped to 
keep the expedition a secret, but tlie patriots 
in Boston, suspecting ^vhere the trooj)s were 
going, sent off Paul Revere ^ and William 
Dawes to ride by different routes to Lex- 
ington, rousing the countryside as they 
went. As the British advanced, alarm bells, 
signal guns, and lights in the villages gave 
proof that their secret was out. 

The sun was rising as tlie first of the 
British, under Major Pitcairn, entered Lex- 
ington and saAV drawn up across tlie villasfe 
green some fifty minutenien^ under Captain 
John Parker. " Dispei'se, 3'e villains," cried 
Pitcairn; " ye rebels, disperse!" Not a man 
moved, whereupon the order to 
fire was given; the troops hesi- 
tated to obey; Pitcairn fired his 
pistol, and a moment later a volley 
from the I>ritish killed or wounded 
sixteen minutemen. 2 Parker then -' ^ ^' 

gave the order to retire. Stone on village green at Lexington. 




One of the lanterns 
hung in the belfry. 

Now in tlie i)()SM'Shi(>n iif 
tlie CiJiieord Antiqiia- 




^ Revere went by way of Cliarlestown (map, p, 100), first crossing the river 
from Boston in a rowboat. As tliere was danger that his boat miglit be stopped 
by the British warships, two lanterns were shown from the belfry of the North 
Church as a signal to his friends in Cliarlestown; and when he landed there at 
midnight, he found the patriots astir, ready to give the alarm if he had not ap- 
peared. Read "Paul Revere's Ride" in Longfellow's Tales of a Wayside Inn. 

'^ In 1774 the rrovincial Congress of Massachusetts ordered one quarter of 
all the militiamen to be enlisted for emergency service. They came to be known 
as minutemen, and in 1775 the Continental Congress recommended "that one 
fourth part of the militia in every colony, be selected for minutemen ... to be 
ready on the shortest notice, to march to any place where their assistance may 
be required." 

3 Just before the fight began Adams and Hancock left Lexington and set out 
to attend the Congress at Philadelphia. 



160 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



The Concord Fight. — From Lexington the British went on 
to Concord, set the courthouse on fire, spiked some cannon, 
cut down the liberty pole, and destroyed some flour. Meantime 
the minutemen, having assembled beyond the village, came 
toward the North Bridge, and the British who were guarding 
it fell back. Shots were exchanged, and six minutemen were 
killed.^ But the Americans crossed the bridge, drove back the 
British, and tlien dispersed. 

About noon the British started for Boston, with hundreds of 
minutemen, who had come from all quarters, hanging on their 

flanks and rear, pouring 
in a o"alIinof Are from 



behind trees and stone 
fences and every bit of 
rising ground. Tlie re- 
treat became a flight, 
and the flight would have 
become a rout had not 
reenforcements met them 
near Lexington. Pro- 
tected by this force, the 
defeated British entered 
Boston by sundown. By 



PROSPECT HILL ^erf '<^n 




BOSTON, 

CIIAULESTOWN.ETC 



morning the hills from Charlestown to Roxbury were black 
with minutemen, and Boston was in a state of siege. 

When the Green Mountain Boys heard of the fight, they 
took arms, and under Ethan Allen ^ surprised and captured 
Fort Ticonderoga on Lake Champlain (map, p. 168). 

1 Read Emerson's Concord, Hymn ; also Cooper's admirable description of 
the day's fighting in Lioii(4 Lincoln. 

2 Ethan Allen was born in Connecticut in 1737, and went to Vermont about 
1769. Vermont was then claimed by New York and New Hampshire, and when 
New York tried to enforce her authority, the settlers in " New Hampshire Grants " 
resisted, and organized as the "Green Mountain Boys" with Allen as leader. 
At Fort Ticonderoga Allen found the garrison asleep. The British commandant, 
awakened by the noise at his door, came out and was ordered to surrender the 
fort. " By what authority?" he asked. " In the name of the Great Jehovah and 
the Continental Congress," said Allen. 



THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE BEGUN 161 

The Second Continental Congress. — On the day that Fort 
Ticonderoga was captured (May 10, 1775), the Continental 
Congress met at Philadelphia. It had been created, not to 
govern the colonies, nor to conduct a war, but merel}^ to consult 
concerning the public welfare, and advise what the colonies 
should do. But war had begun. Congress was forced to become 
a governing body, and after a month's delay it adopted the band 
of patriots gathered about Boston, made it the Continental army, 
and appointed George Washington (then a delegate to Congress 
from Virginia) commander in chief. 

Washington accepted the trust, and left Philadelphia June 
21, but had not gone twenty miles when he was met by news of 
the battle of Bunker Hill. 

Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775. — Since the fight at Lexington and 
Concord in April, troops under General Howe, Sir Henry Clin- 
ton, and General Burgoyne had arrived 
at Boston and raised the number there 
to ten thousand. Gage now felt strong- 
enough to seize the hills near Boston, lest 
the Americans should occupy them and 
command the town. Learning of this, 
the patriots determined to forestall him, 
and on the night of June 16 twelve hun- 
dred men under Prescott were sent to 1*^"™ used at Bunker 

Hill 

fortify Bunker Hill in Charlestown. ^, . ,^ 

•^ Now in the possession of the 

Prescott thought best to go beyond Bun- Ancient and Honorable Ai- 

1 TT-ii 11 • ji • 1 j_ j_i tillery Company, Boston. 

ker Hill, and during the night threw up 

a rude intrenchment on Breeds Hill instead. 

To allow batteries to be planted there would never do, so 
Gage dispatched Howe with nearly three thousand regulars to 
drive away the Americans and hold the hill. Coining over from 
Boston in boats, the British landed and marched up the hill till 
thirty yards from the works, when a deadly volley mowed 
down the front rank and sent the rest down the hill in disorder. 

A little time elapsed before the regulars were seen again 
ascending, only to be met by a series of volleys at short range. 




162 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

The British fought stubbornly, but were once more forced to 
retreat, leaving the hillside covered with dead and wounded. 
Their loss was dreadful, but Howe could not bear to give 
up the fight, and a third time the British were led up the 
hill. The powder of the Americans was spent, and the fight 
was hand to hand with stones, butts of muskets, anything that 
would serve as a weapon, till the bayonet charges of the British 
forced the Americans to retreat.^ 

Washington in Command. — Two Aveeks later Washington 
reached Cambridge and took formal command of the army. 
For eight months he kept the British shut up in Boston, while 
he gathered guns, powder, and cannon, and trained the men. 

To the Continental army meantime came troops from Virginia, 
Maryland, Pennsylvania, and of course from the four New 
England colonies, commanded by men who were destined to 
rise to high positions during the war. There was Daniel Mor- 
gan of Virginia, with a splendid band of sharpshooters, and 
Israel Putnam of Connecticut, John Stark and John Sullivan 
of New Hampshire, Nathanael Greene of Rhode Island, Henry 
Knox of Boston, Horatio Gates of Virginia, and Benedict 
Arnold and Charles Lee who later turned traitors. 

The Hessians. — When King George III heard of the fight at 
Bunker Hill, he issued a proclamation declaring the colonists 
rebels, closed their ports to trade and commerce,^ and souglit 

1 Read Fiske's American Revolutinn, Vol. I, pp. 13(3-140, and Ilolines's 
Grandmother'' s Story of Bunker Hill. The British lost 10')4 and the Americans 
449. Among the British dead was Pitcairn, who began the war at Lexington. 
Among the American dead was Dr. "Warren, an able leader of the Boston patriots. 
While the battle was raging, Charlestown was shelled and set on fire and four 
hundred houses burned. Later, in October, a British fleet entered the harbor of 
Falmouth (now Portland in Maine), and burned three fourths of the houses. 
January 1, 1776, Lord Dunmore, royal governor of Virginia, set fire to Nor- 
folk, the chief city of Virginia. The fire raged for three days and reduced the 
place to ashes. These acts are charged against the king in the Declaration 
of Independence : " He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our 
towns, and destroyed the lives of our people." 

2 This is made a charge against the king in the Declaration : " He has 
abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection, and waging war 
against us." And again, " For cutting off our trade with all jiartsof the world." 



THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE BEGUN 



163 




Hessian hat. 

Now ill Essex Hall, Salem. 



to hire troops from Russia and Holland. Uotli refused, where- 
upon he turned to some petty German states and hired maiiy 
thousand soldiers who in our country were 
called Hessians. 1 

Canada Invaded. — Now tliat the war 
was really under way, Congress turned its 
attention to Canada. It was feared that 
tlie British governcn- there might take 
Ticonderoga, enter New York, and perhaps 
induce the Indians to harry the New Eng- 
land frontier as they did in the old French 
wars. In the summer of 1775, therefore, 
two expeditions were sent against Canada. 
One under Richard Montgomery w^ent down 
Lake Champlain from Ticonderoga and captured Montreal. 
Another under Benedict Arnold sailed from ^Massachusetts to 
the mouth of the Kennebec River, and forced its way through 
the dense woods of Maine to Quebec. There Montgomery 
joined Arnold, and on the night of December 31, 1775, the 
American army in a blinding snowstorm assaulted the town. 
Montgomery fell dead while leading the attack on one side of 
Quebec, Arnold was wounded during the attack on tlie other side, 
and Morgan, who took Arnold's place and led his men far into 
the town, was cut off and captured. Though the attack on 
Quebec failed, the Americans besieged the place till s})ring, 
Avhen they were forced to leave Canada and tind shelter at 
Crown Point. 

Boston Evacuated. — During the winter of 1775-7(3, some 
heavy guns were dragged over the snow on sledges from Ticon- 

1 The Duke of Brunswick, the landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and four other 
princes furnished the men. Their generals were Eiedesel (ree'de-zel), Knyp- 
hau.sen (knip'hou-zen), Von Heister, and Donop. The employment of these 
troops furnishes another charge against the king in the Declaration : '• lie is, at 
this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works 
of death, desolation," and tyranny." The first detachment of German troops 
landed on Staten Island in New York Bay on August 15, 177(). Before the 
war ended, the six pptty German princes furnished 29,8(i7, of whom lL',r)')<) never 
returned. Some 5000 of these deserted. 



164 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



'^mW': 




One of the guns taken from Ticonderoga 
to Boston. 

Now at Cambridge. 



deroga to Boston. A captured British vessel provided powder, 
and in March, 1776, Washington seized Dorchester Heights, 
fortified them, and by so doing forced Howe, who had suc- 
ceeded Gage in command, to 
evacuate Boston, March 17. 

"Whigs and Tories. — Dur- 
ing the excitement over the 
Stamp Act, the Townshend 
Acts, and the tea tax, tlie 
people were divided into 
three parties. Those who re- 
sisted and finally rebelled 
were called Whigs, or Patri- 
ots, or "Sons of Liberty." 
Tliose who supported king 
and Parliament were called Tories or Loyalists. ^ Between 
these two extremes were the great mass of the population who 
cared little which way tlie struggle ended. Li New York, 
Pennsylvania, and the Carolinas the Tories were numerous and 
active, and when the war opened, they raised regiments and 
fought for the king. 

Fighting in the Carolinas. — In January, 1776, Sir Henry 
Clinton sailed from Boston to attack North Carolina, and a 
force of sixteen hundred Tories marched toward the coast 
to aid. But North Carolina had its minutemen as well as 
Massachusetts. A body of them under Colonel Caswell met 
and beat the Tories at Moores Creek (February 27) and so 
large a force of patriots had assembled when Clinton arrived 
that he did not make the attack. 

1 Before fighting began, the Tories were denounced and held up as 
enemies to their country ; later their leaders were mobbed, and if they held 
office, were forced to resign. After the battle of Bunker Hill, laws of great 
severity were enacted against them. They were disarmed, forced to take an 
oath of allegiance, proclaimed traitors, driven into exile, and their estates and 
property were confiscated. At the close of the war, fearing the anger of the 
Whigs, thousands of Tories fled from our countrj' to Jamaica, Bermuda, Halifax 
in Nova Scotia, and Canada. Some 30,000 went from New York city in 1782-83, 
and upward of 60,000 left our country during and after the war. 



THE FIGHT FOR INDEPENDENCE BEGUN 165 

The next attempt was against South Carolina. Late in 
June, Clinton with his fleet appeared before Charleston, and 
while the fleet opened fire on Fort Moultrie (mol'try) from 
the water, Clinton marched to attack it by land. But the land 
attack failed, the fleet was badly damaged by shot from the 
fort, and the expedition sailed away to New York.^ 

Independence Necessary. — Prior to 1776 many of the colonies 
denied any desire for independence,^ but the events of this year 
caused a change. After the battle of Moores Creek, North 
Carolina bade her delegates in Congress vote for independence. 
Virginia, in May, ordered her delegates to propose that the 
United Colonies be declared free and independent. South 
Carolina and Georgia instructed their delegates to assent to 
any measure for the good of America. Rhode Island dropped 
the king's name from state documents and sheriffs' writs, and 
town after town in Massachusetts voted to uphold Congress in 
a declaration of independence. 

Thus encouraged, Congress, in May, resolved that royal 
authority must be suppressed, and advised all the colonies to 
establish independent governments. Some had already done 
so; the rest one by one framed written constitutions of govern- 
ment, and became states.^ 

1 While the battle was hottest, a shot carried away the flagstaff of Fort 
Moultrie. The staff and flag fell outside the fort. Instantly Sergeant William 
Jasper leaped down, fastened the flag to the ramrod of a cannon, climbed back, 
and planted this new staff firmly on the fort. A fine monument now com- 
memorates his bravery. 

'^ However, many leaders in New England, as Samuel Adams, John Adams, 
and Elbridge Gerry ; in Pennsylvania, as Benjamin Push and Benjamin Franklin ; 
in Delaware, as Thomas McKean ; as Chase of Maryland ; Lee, Henry, Jefferson, 
Washington, of Virginia ; and Gadsden of South Carolina, favored independence. 
In this state of affairs Thomas Paine, in January, 1776, wrote a pamphlet called 
Common Sense, in which independence was strongly urged. The effect was 
wonderful. Edition after edition was printed in many places. " Common 
Sense,'" says one writer, "is read to all ranks; and as many as read, .so many 
become converted." 

3 Rhode Island and Connecticut did not abandon their charters, for in these 
colonies the people had always elected their governors and had always been 
practically independent of the king. Connecticut did not make a constitution 
till 1818, and Rhode Island not till 1842. 



166 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOx\ 



Independence Declared. — To pretend allegiance to the king 
any longer was a farce. Congress, therefore, appointed Thomas 
Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Roger Sherman, 
and Robert R. Livingston to write a declaration of independ- 
ence, and on July 2, 177G, resolved: "That these United 
Colonies are, and of right ought to be, free and independent 

States, that they are ab- 
solved from all allegiance 
to tlie British Crown^ and 
that all political connec- 
tion between them and 
the state of Great Britain 
is, and ought to be, totally 
dissolved."! This is the 
Declaration of Independ- 
ence. The document we 
call the Declaration con- 
tains the reasons why in- 
dependence was declared. 
It was written by Jef- 
ferson, and after some 
changes hy Congress was 
adopted on July 4, 17 76,^ 
and copies were ordered 
to be sent to the states. 





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^K^^^^^^Sptf^^^^ ^^vi^^^S 




■"•^-^Hf^^ W^^fflB 








l^^m >W ^j^^^mSSB^^^^ 


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m ^ ■ ■ 



The Committee on Declaration of Independence. 

From an old print. 



1 This resolution had been introduced in Congre.ss, in June, by Richard Henry 
Lee of Virginia. For a fine description of the debate on independence read 
Webster's Oration on Adams and Jefferson. Why did John Dickinson oppose 
a declaration of independence? Read Fiske's American Bevohition, Vol. I, 
pp. 190-192. 

'^ A few copies signed by Hancock, president of Congress, and Thomson, 
the secretary, were made public on July 5 ; and on .July 8 one of these was read 
to a crowd of people in the Statehouse yard at Philadelphia. The common 
idea that the Declaration was signed at one time is erroneous. The signing did 
not begin till August 2. Of those who signed then and afterward, seven were 
not members of Congress on July 4, 1776. Of those signers who were members 
on July 4, it is known that five were ab.sent on that day. Seven men who were 
members of Congress on July 4 were not members on August 2, and never 
signed. 



THE FIGHT FOR IXDEPEXDENTE BEGUN 167 



SUMMARY 

1. Governor Gage, hearing that the people of Massachusetts were gatlier- 
ing military stores, sent troops to destroy the stores. 

2. The battles at Lexington and Concord followed, and Boston was 
besieged. 

3. The militia from the neighboring colonies gathered about Boston. 
They were formed into a Continental army by Congress, and Washington 
was appointed commander in chief. 

4. The battle of Bunker Hill, meantime, took place (June. ITT.i). 

5. King George III now declared the colonists rebels, shut their ports, 
and sent troops from Germany to subdue them. 

6. An expedition of the patiiots for the conquest of Canada failed 
(1775-76). 

7. But the British were forced to leave Boston (March, 177G). 

8. British attacks on North Carolina and South Carolina came to 
naught. 

9. July 4, 1776, the Declaration of Independence was adopted. 




Loug'itude 



168 



CHAPTER XIV 
THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES AND ON THE SEA 

Battle of Long Island. — When Howe sailed from Boston 
(in March, 177(3), he went to Halifax in Nova Scotia. But 
Washington was sure New York would be attacked, so he moved 
the Continental army to that city and took position on the hills 
back of Brooklyn on Long Island. 

He was not mistaken, for to New York harbor in June came 
General Howe, and in July Clinton from his defeat at Charleston, 
and Admiral Howe ^ with troops from England. Thus reen- 
forced. General Howe landed on Long Island in August, and 
drove the Americans from their outposts, back to Brooklyn. ^ 
Wasliington now expected an assault, but Howe remembered 
Bunker Hill and made ready to besiege the Americans, where- 
upon two nights after the battle Washington crossed with the 
army to Manhattan Island. ^ 

1 Admiral Howe now wrote to Washington, offering pardon to all persons who 
should desist from rebellion ; he addressed the letter to "George Washington, 
Esq.," and sent it under flag of truce. The messenger was told there was no one 
in the army with that title. A week later another messenger came with a paper 
addressed " George Washington, Esq. etc. etc." This time he was received ; 
and when Washington declined to receive the letter, explained that " etc. etc." 
meant everything. " Indeed," said Washington, " they might mean anything." 
He was determined that Howe should recognize him as commander in chief of 
the Continental army, and not treat him as the leader of rebels. 

2 Many of the jn-isoners taken in this and other battles were put on board 
ships anchored near Brooklyn. Their sufferings in the!>e "Jersey prison ships" 
were terrible, and many died and were buried on the beach. From these rude 
graves their bones from time to time were washed out. At last in 1808 tliey 
were taken up and decently buried near the Brooklyn navy yard, and in 1878 
were put in a vault in Washington Park, Brooklyn. 

3 While Washington was near New York, a young man named Nathan Hale 
volunteered to enter the British lines on Long Island to procure information 
greatly needed. As he was returning he was recognized by a Tory kinsman, was 
captured, tried as a spy, and hanged. His last words were : "I regret that I 
have but one life to lose for my country." 

M(M. IIRIF.F — 11 169 



170 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



Washington's Retreat. — Washington left a strong force 
under Putnam in the heart of New York city, and stationed his 

main army along Harlem 
Heights. Howe crossed 
to jNIanhatlan and landed 
beliind Putnam, Mvho was 
thns forced to leave his 
guns and tents, and flee to 
Harlem Heights, where 
Howe attacked Washingf- 
ton the next day and was 
repulsed. 

So matters stood for 
nearly a month, when 
Howe attempted to go 
around the east end of 
Wasliington's line, and 
thus forced him to retreat 
to White Plains. Baffled 
in an attack at this 
place, Howe went back 
to New York and carried Fort Wasliington by storm, taking 
many prisoners. 

Washington meantime had crossed the Hudson to New 
Jersey, leaving General Charles Lee with seven thousand men 
in New York state. He now ordered Lee to join him 2; but 
Lee disobeyed, and Wasliington, closely pursued by the British, 
retreated across New Jersey. 

1 When Howe, marching across Manhattan Island, reached Murray Hill, 
Mrs. Lindley Murray sent a servant to invite hiin to luncheon. The army 
was halted, and Mrs. Murray entertained Howe and his officers for two hours. 
It was tliis delay that enabled Putnam to escape. 

^ Ciiarles Lee was in general command at Charleston during the attack 
on Fort Moultrie, and when he joined Washington at New York, was thought 
a great officer. Lee was jealous, hoped to be made commander in chief, 
and purposely left Washington to his fate. Later Lee crossed to New Jer- 
sey and took up his quarters at Basking Ridge, not far from Morristown, 
where the British captured him (December 13, 1776). 




Battle of Harlem Heights. 

Tablet on a Columbia Colk'se biiiklinfr. New York eitv 



THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES 



171 



The Victory at Trenton, December 26. 1776. — On- the Penn- 

sylvania siile of llie Dela^^•al•e lliver, Washington turned at bay, 
and having at hist received some reenforcements, he recrossed 
the Dehiware on Christmas night in a blinding snowstorm, 
marched nine miles to Trenton, surprised a body of Hessians, 
captured a thousand prisoners, and went back to Pennsylvania. 

Washington now proposed to follow up this victory with 
other attacks. But a new difficulty arose, for the time of 
service of many of the Eastern troops would expire on January 1 . 
These men were therefore asked to serve six weeks longer, and 
were offered a bounty of ten dollars a man. 

Robert Morris sends Money. — ]N[any agreed to serve, but the 
paymaster had no money. 
AVashington therefore 
pledged liis own fortune, 
and appealed to Robert 
Morris at Philadelphia. ^ 
" If it be possible. Sir," he 
wrote, " to give us assist- 
ance, do it ; borrow money 
while it can be done, we are 
doing it upon our private 
credit." Morris responded 
at once, and on New Year's ^'^"' '" "" 
morning, 1777, went from 
house to house, roused his friends from their beds to borrow 
money from them, and early in the day sent hfty thousand 
dollars. 

1 Robert Morris was born at Liverpool, England, but came to Philadelphia 
as a lad and entered on a business career, and when the Revolution oi^ened, was 
a man of means and influence. He signed the non-importation agreement of 
1765, and signed the Declaration of Independence, and at this time (December, 
1776) was a leading member of Congress. A year later, wheii the army was 
at Valley Forge, he sent it as a gift a large quantity of food and clothing. In 
1781 Morris was made Superintendent of Finance, and in order to supply 
the army in the movement against Yorktown, lent his notes to the amount of 
§1,400,000. In 1781 he founded the Bank of North America, which is now the 
oldest bank in our country. After the war Morris was a senator from Penn- 




Morris's strong box. 

xissession of the Pennsylvania Histor- 
ical Society. 



172 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



Battle of Princeton, January 3, 1777. — Washington crossed 
again to Trenton, whereupon Lord Cornwallis hurried up with 
a British army, and shut in the Americans between his forces 
and the Delaware. But Washington slipped out, went around 
Cornwallis, and the next morning attacked three British regi- 
ments at Princeton and beat them. He then took possession of 
the hills at Morristown, where he spent the rest of the winter. 
The Attempt to cut off New England. — The British plan fur 
the campaign of 1777 was to seize Lake Champlain and the 
Hudson River and so cut off New England from the Middle 
States. To carry out this plan, (1) General Burgoyne was to 
come down from Canada, (2) Howe was to go up the Hudson 
from New York and join Burgoyne at Albany, and (3) St. Leger 
was to go from Lake Ontario down the Mohawk to Albany. ^ 

Oriskany. — Hearing of the approach of St. Leger, General 
Herkimer of the New York militia gathered eight hundred men 
and hurried to the relief of Fort Stanwix. Near Oriskany, 
about six miles from the fort, he fell into an ambuscade of 
British and Indians, and a fierce hand-to-hand fight ensued, 

till the Indians fled and the 
British, forced to follow, left the 
Americans in possession of the 
field, too weak to pursue. 

Just at this time the garrison 
of the fort made a sortie against 
part of the British army, cap- 
tured their camp, and carried a 
quantity of supplies and their 

The first national flag. flags ^ back to the fort. 




sylvania. He speculated largely in Western lands, lost his fortune, and from 
1798 to 1802 was a prisoner for debt. He died in 1806. 

iRead the story of Jane McCrea in Fiske's American Bevolution, Vol. I, 
pp. 277-279. 

2 These flags were hoisted on the fort and over them was raised the first flag 
of stars and stripes ever flung to the breeze. Congress on June 14, 1777, had 
adopted our national flag. The flag at Fort Stanwix was made of pieces of 
a white shirt, a blue jacket, and strips of red flannel. The day was August 6. 



THE WAR IN THE MIDDLE STATES 



173 



When news of Oriskany reached Schuyler, the patriot 
general commanding in the north, he called for a volunteer to 
lead a force to relieve Fort Stanwix. Arnold responded, and 
with twelve hundred men liurried westward, and by a clever 
ruse 1 forced St. Leger to raise the siege and flee to Montreal. 




Battle of Bennington, i imim m ^i \ pimt. 

Bennington. — IJurgoyne set out in June, eaplureil Tieon- 
deroga, and advanced to the upper Hudson. As lie came south- 
ward, the sturdy farmers of Vermont and New York began to 
gather on his flank, and collected at lii^nnington many horses 
and large stores of food and ammunition. As I>nrgoyne needed 

iThe story runs that several Tory spies were raptureil and conileinned to 
death, but one iiaiiifd Tuyln- was smred by Ar rild on coiiditioii that he 
shotthl go to the camp of St. Leger and say that I'.argoyue was captured and 
a great Anierijan anny was coming to relieve Fort Stanwix. Cuyler agreed, 
and having cut what seemed bulljt holes in his clothes, rushed into the British 
camp, crying out that a large American army was at hand, and that he had 
barely escaped with life. The Indians at once began to desert, the panic spread 
to the British, and the next day St. Leger was fleeing toward Lake Ontario. 



174 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

horses, he sent a force of Hessians to attack Bennington. But 
Stark, with his Green Mountain Boys and New Hampshire 
militia, met the Hessians six miles from town, surrounded them 
on all sides, beat them, and took seven hundred prisoners and 
quantities of guns and some cannon (August 16). 

Saratoga. — These defeats were serious blows to Burgoyne, 
around wliose army the Americans had been gathering. He 
decided, however, to fight, crossed the Hudson, and about the 
middle of September attacked the Americans at Bemis Heights, 
and again on the same ground early in October.^ He was 
beaten in both battles and on October 17 was forced to sur- 
render at Saratoga. 

Battle of Brandywine. — What, meantime, had Howe been 
doing ? He should have pushed up the Hudson to join Bur- 
goyne. But he decided to capture Philadelphia before going 
north, and having put his army on board a fleet, he started for 
that city by sea. Not venturing to enter the Delaware, he 
sailed up Chesapeake Bay and two weeks after landing found 
Washington awaiting him on Brandywine Creek, where (Sep- 
tember 11, 1777) a battle was fought and won by the British. 
Among the wounded was Marquis de Lafayette,^ who earlier in 
tlie year had come from France to offer his services to Congress. 

Philadelphia Occupied. — Two weeks later Howe entered 
Philadelphia in triumph.'^ Congress had fled to Lancaster, and 

^ The second battle is often called the battle of Stillwater. Shortly before 
this Congress removed Schuyler from command and gave it to Gates, who thus 
reaped the glory of the whole campaign. In both battles Arnold greatly distin- 
guislied himself. He won the first fight and was wounded in the second. 

2 Lafayette was a young French nobleman who, fired by accounts of the war 
in America, fitted out a vessel, and despite the orders of the French king escaped 
and came to Pliiladelphia, and offered his services to Congress. With him were 
De Kalb and eleven other officers. Two gallant Polish officers, Pulaski and 
Kosciusko, had come over before this time. Kosciusko had been recommended 
to Washington by Franklin, then in France ; he was made a colonel in the 
engineer corps and superintended the building of the American fortifications 
at Bemis Heights. After the war he returned to Poland, and long afterward led 
the Poles in their struggle for liberty. 

^ An interesting novel on this period of the war is Dr. S. W. Mitchell's Hugh 
Wynne. 



THE WAR IX THE MIDDLE STATES 



175 



later AA^ent to York, Pennsylvaina. Washington now attacked 
Howe at Germantown (just north of Phihidelphia), but was 




Drawn by Barley. 

At Valley Forge. 

defeated and went into winter quarters at Valley Forge, where 

the patriots suffered greatly from cold and hunger. ^ 

Result of the Campaign. — The year's campaign was far 

from a failure. ^ Tlie surprise at Trenton and the victory at 

Princeton showed that Washington was a general of the first 

rank. The defeats at Brandywine and Germantown did not 

dishearten the army. The victory at Saratoga was one of the 

decisive campaigns of the world's histor}^ ; for it ruined the 

plans of the British ^ and secured us the aid of France. 

1 At Valley Forge Baron Steuben joined the army. He was an able German 
officer who had seen service under Frederick the Great of Prussia, and had 
been persuaded by the French Minister of Foreign Affairs to come to America 
and help to organize and discipline the army. lie landed in New Hampshire 
late in 1777, and spent the dreadful winter at Valley Forge in drilling the troops, 
teaching them the use of the bayonet, and organizing the army on the Eu- 
ropean plan. After the war New York presented Steubeu with a farui of 
16,000 acres not far from Fort Stanwix. There he died in 179-J. 

2 Certain officers and members of Congress plotted during 1777 to have 
Washington removed from the command of the army. For an account of this 
Conway Cabal read Fiske's American Bovoliitinn, Vol. II, pp. 34-4o. 

3 Great Britain now sent over commissioners to offer liberal terms of peace. 
— no taxes by Parliament, no restrictions on trade, no troops in America with- 



176 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



Help from France, 1778. — In 1776 Congress commissioned 
Benjamin Franklin, Arthur Lee, and Silas Deane to go to France 
and seek her help. France, smarting under the loss of Louisi- 
ana and Canada (1763), would gladly have helped us ; but not 
till the victories at Trenton, Princeton, Oriskany, and Saratoga 
could she feel sure of the ability of the Americans to fight. 
Then the French king recognized our independence, and in 
February, 1778, made with us a treaty of alliance and went to 
war with Great Britain. 

The effect of the French alliance was immediate. France 
began to fit out a fleet and army to help us. Hearing of this, 
Clinton, who had succeeded Howe in command at Philadelphia, 
left that city with his army and started for New York. 

Monmouth, June 28, 1778. — Washington decided to pursue, 
and as Clinton, hampered by an immense train of baggage, 

moved slowly across New 
Jersey, he was overtaken 
by tlie Americans at Mon- 
mouth. Charles Lee ^ was 
to begin the attack, and 
Washington, coming up a 
little later, was to complete 
the defeat of the enemy. 
But Lee was a traitor, and 
having attacked the Brit- 
ish, began a retreat which 
would have lost the day 
had not AYashington come 
up just in time to lead a 

out consent of the colonial assemblies, even representation in Parliament, — but 
the offer was rejected. Why did the commissioners fail ? Read Fiske's Ameri- 
can Revolution, Vol. II, pp. 4-17, 22-24. 

1 Lee had been exchanged for a captured British general, and came to 
Valley Forge in May. From papers found after his death we know that while a 
prisoner he advised Howe as to the best means of conquering the states. For 
his conduct in the battle and insolence to Washington after it, Lee was sus- 
pended from the army for one year, but when he wrote an insolent letter to 
Congress, he was dismissed from the army. 




Church near Monmouth battlefield, built 
in 1752. 



THE WAR ON THE SEA 177 

new attack. The battle raged till nightfall, and in the dark- 
ness Clinton slipped away and went on to New York. 

Washington now crossed the Hudson, encamped at Wliite 
Plains, and during tliree years remained in that neighborhood, 
constantly threatening the British in New York.^ 

Beginning of the Navy. — More than three years had now 
passed since the light at Lexington, and here let us stop and 
review what the Americans had been doing at sea. At the 
outset, the colonists had no warships at all. Congress there- 
fore (in December, 1775) ordered thirteen armed vessels to be 
built at once, bought merchant ships to serve as cruisers, and 
thus created a navy of thirty vessels before the 4th of Jul}', 
177(3.2 

Eight of the cruisers were quickly assembled at Pliiladel- 
pliia, and early in January, 1776, Esek Hopkins, commander 
in chief, stepped on board of one of them and took command. 
As he did so. Lieutenant John Paul Jones hoisted a yellow 
silk flag on which was the device of a pine tree and a coiled 
rattlesnake and the motto "Don't tread on me." This was the 
first flag ever displayed on an American man-of-war. Ice 
delayed the departure of the squadron ; but in February it 
put to sea, went to the Bahama Lslands, captured the forts on 
the island of New Providence, and carried off a quantity of 
powder and cannon. 

Captain Barry. — Soon afterward another cruiser, the six- 

1 A French fleet of twelve ships, under Count d'Estaing, soon arrived near 
New York. It might perhaps have captured the British f.eet in the harbor ; but 
without making the attempt D'Estaing went on to Newport to attempt the cap- 
ture of a British force which had hekl that place since December, 177(>. Wasli- 
ington sent Greene and Lafayette with troops to assist him, the New England 
militia turned out by thousands, and all seemed ready for the attack, when a 
British fleet appeared and D'Estaing went out to meet it. A storm scattered 
the vessels of the -two squadrons, and D'Estaing went to Boston for repairs, and 
then to the West Indies. 

2 Six of the thirty never got to sea, but were captured or destroyed when the 
British took New York and Philadelphia. Our navy, therefore, may be con- 
sidered at the outset to have consisted of 24 vessels, mounting 422 guns. Great 
Britain at that time had 112 war vessels, carrying o714 guns, and 78 of these 
vessels were stationed on or near our coast. 



178 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

teen-gun brig Lezingto7i, Captain John Barry,i fell in with a 
British armed vessel oft" the coast of Virginia, and after a sharp 
engagement captured her. She was the first prize brought in 
by a commissioned officer of the American navy. 

The Cruisers in Europe. — In 1777 the cruisers carried the 
war into British ports and waters, across the Atlantic. The 
Reprisal (which had carried Franklin to France), under Cap- 
tain Wilkes, in company with two other vessels, sailed twice 
around Ireland, made fifteen prizes, and alarmed the whole 
coast. 2 Another cruiser, the Revenge^ scoured British waters, 
and when in need of repairs boldly entered a British port in 
disguise and refitted. 

In 1778 John Paul Jones,^ in the Ranger, sailed to the Irish 
Channel, destroyed four vessels, set fire to the shipping in a 

1 John Barry was a native of Ireland. He came to America at tliirteen, and 
at twenty-five was captain of a siiip. At tlie opening of tlie war lie offered his 
services to Congress, and in February, 1776, was given command of the 
Lexington. After his victory Barry was transferred to the 28-gun frigate 
Effingham, and in 1777 (while blockaded in the Delaware), with 27 men in 
four boats captured and destroyed a 10-gun schooner and four transports. For 
this he was thanked by Washington. When the British captured Philadelphia, 
Barry took the Effingham up the river to save her ; but she was burned by 
the British. At different times Barry commanded several other ships, and in 
1782, in the Alliance, fought the last action of the war. In 1794 he was senior 
captain of the navy, with the title of commodore. He died in 1803. 

2 Wlien these ships returned to France with the prizes, the British govern- 
ment protested so vigorously that the Reprisal and the Lexington were seized 
and held till security was given that they would leave France. The prizes were 
ordered out of port, were taken into the offing, and then quietly sold to French 
merchants. The Reprisal on her way home was lost at sea. The Lexington 
was captured and her men thrown into prLson. They escaped by digging a hole 
under the wall, and were on boai'd a vessel in London bound for France, when 
they were discovered and sent back to prison. A year later one of them, 
Richard Dale, escaped by walking pa.st the guards in daylight, dressed in a 
British uniform. He never would tell how he got the uniform. 

3 John Paul, Jr., was born in Scotland in 1747. He began a seafaring life 
when twelve years old and followed it till 1778, when he fell heir to a planta- 
tion in Virginia on condition that he should take the name of Jones. There- 
after he was known as John Paul Jones. In 1775 Jones offered his services to 
Congress, assisted in founding our navy, and in December, 1775, was commis- 
sioned lieutenant. He died in Paris in 1792, but the whereabouts of his grave 
was long unknown. In 1905, however, the United States ambassador to 
France (Horace Porter) discovered the body of Jones, which was brought 



THE WAR ON THE SEA 



179 



British port, fought and captured a British armed schooner, 
sailed around Ireland with her, and reached France in safety. 

The next year (ITT'B) Jones, in the Bonhomme Richard 
(bo-nom' re-shar'), fell in with the British frigate jSerapis off 
the east coast of Great Britain, and 
on a moonlight night fought one of 
the most desperate battles in naval 
history and won it. 

The Frigates. — Of the thirteen 
frigates ordered by Congress in 1775. 
only four remained by the end of 
1778. Some were captured at sea, 
some were destroyed to prevent 
their falling into British hands, 
and one blew up while gallantly 
fighting. Of the cruisers bought 
in 1775, only one remained. Other 
purchases at home and abroad were 
made, but three frigates were cap- 
tured and destroyed at Charleston 
in 1779, and by the end of the 
year our navy was reduced to six 
vessels. During the war 24 vessels 
of the navy were lost by capture, 
wreck, or destruction. The British navy lost 102. 

The Privateers. — So far we have considered only the Amer- 
ican navy — the warships owned by the government. Congress 
also (March, 1776) issued letters of marque, or licenses to 
citizens to fit out armed vessels and make war on British ships 
armed or unarmed ; and the sea soon swarmed with privateers 




Gold medal given to Jones. i 



■with due honors to the United States and deposited at the Naval Academy at 
Annapolis. Porter's account of how the body was found may be read in the 
Century Macjazine for October, 1905. Jones is the hero of Cooper's novel 
called The Pilot. 

iThe wording on the medal may be translated as follows : " The American 
Congress to John Paul Jones, fleet commander — for the capture or defeat of 
the enemy's ships off the coast of Scotland, Sept. 23, 1779." 



180 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

fitted out, not only by citizens but also by the states. The 
privateers were active throughout the war, and took hundreds 
of prizes. 

SUMMARY 

1. After the British left Boston, Washington moved his army to Long 
Island, where he was attacked by the British and driven up the Hudson to 
White Plains. 

2. Later in the year (1770), AVashington crossed the Hudson and re- 
treated through New Jersey to Pennsylvania ; then he turned about, won the 
battles of Trenton (December 26, 1776) and Princeton (.January 3, 1777), 
and spent the rest of the winter in New Jersey. 

3. The British plan for the campaign of 1777 was to cut off New 
England from the Middle States ; Burgoyne was to come down from Canada 
and meet Howe, who was to move up the Hudson. 

4. Burgoyne lost several battles, and was forced to suri'ender at Sara- 
toga (October 17, 1777). 

5. Howe put off going up the Hudson till too late ; instead, he de- 
feated Washington at Brandywine Creek (September 11, 1777), and cap- 
tured Philadelphia. Washington then attacked Howe at Germantown, was 
defeated, and spent the winter at Valley Forge. 

6. After Burgoyne's surrender, France recognized oiir independence 
(February, 1778) and joined us in the war. 

7. Fearing a French attack on New York, the British left Pliiladelphia 
(June, 177!^); Washington followed and fought the battle of Monmouth; 
but the British went on to New York, and for three years Washington re- 
mained near that city. 

8. Congress, in December, 1775, created a little navy; but some of 
these vessels never got to sea ; others under Hopkins and Barry won vic- 
tories during 1776. 

9. In 1777 the cruisei'S were sent to British waters and under Wilkes 
and others harried British coasts. 

10. In 1778 Paul Jones sailed around Ireland and in 1779 he won his 
great victory in the Bonhomme Richard. 



CHAPTER XV 
THE WAR IN THE WEST AND IN THE SOUTH 

The West. — After Great Britain obtained from France 
the country between the mountains and the Mississippi, tlie 
British king, as we have seen (p. 143), forbade settlement west 
of the mountains. But the Avestward movement of popuhition 
was not to be stopped by a prochimation. The hardy frontiers- 




The West during the Revolution. 

men gave it no heed, and, passing over the mountains of 
Virginia and North Carolina, they hunted, trapped, and made 
settlements in the forbidden land. 

Tennessee. — Thus, in 1769, William Beau of Nortli Caro- 
lina built a cabin on the banks of the Watauga Creek and 

181 



182 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



began the settlement of what is now Tennessee. The next 
year James Robertson and many others followed and dotted 
the valleys of the Holston and the Clinch with clearings and 
log cabins. These men at first were without government of 
any sort, so they formed an association and for some years 

governed themselves ; but in 
1776 their delegates were 
seated in the legislature of 
North Carolina, and next year 
their settlements were organ- 
ized as Washington county in 
that state. Robertson soon 
(1779) led a colony further 
west and on the banks of the 
Cumberland founded Nash- 
boro, now called Nashville. 

Kentucky. — The year 
(1769) that Bean went into 
Tennessee, Daniel Boone, one 
of the great men of frontier 
history, entered what is now 
Kentucky. Others followed, 
and despite Indian wars and 
massacres, Boonesboro, Har- 
rodsburg, and Lexington were 
founded before 1777. These 




Indian attacking a frontiersman. 



backwoodsmen also were for a time without any government; 
but in December, 1776, Virginia organized the region as a 
county with the present boundaries of Kentucky. ^ 

George Rogers Clark. — In the country north of the Ohio 
were a few old French towns, — Detroit, Kaskaskia, Vincennes, 
— and a few forts built by the French and garrisoned by the 

1 About this time the settlers on the upper Ohio River (in what is now 
West Virginia and southwestern Pennsylvania) became eager for statehood. 
Both Virginia and Pennsylvania claimed their allegiance. They asked Con- 
gress, therefore, for recognition as the state of Westsylvania, the fourteenth 
province of the American Confederacy. Congress did not grant their prayer. 



THE WAR IN THE WEST 183 

British, from whom the Indians obtained guns and powder 
to attack the frontier. Against these forts and viUao-es 
George Rogers Clark, a young Virginian, planned an expedi- 
tion which was approved by Patrick Henry, then governor of 
Virginia. Henry could give him little aid, but Clark was 
determined to go ; and in 1778, with one hundred and eighty 
men, left Pittsburg in boats, floated down the Ohio to its mouth, 
marched across the s\vam[)s and prairies of south-western 
Illinois, and took Kaskaskia. 

Vincennes^ thereupon surrendered ; but was soon recaptured 
by the British general at Detroit with a band .of Indians. But 
Clark, after a dreadful march across country in midwinter, 
attacked the fort in the dead of night, captured it, and then 
conquered the country near the Wabash and Illinois rivers, and 
held it for Virginia. ^ 

Spain in the West. — The concpiest was most timely ; for 
in 1779 Spain joined in the \v-dv against Great Britain, seized 
towns and British forts in Florida, and in January, 1781, sent 
out from St. Louis a band of Spaniards and Indians who 
marched across Illinois and took possession of Fort St. Joseph 
in what is now southwestern Michigan, occupied it, and 
claimed the Northwest for Spain. 

The South Invaded. — Near the end of 1778, the British 
armies held strong positions at New York and Newport, and 
the French fleet under D'Estaing was in tlie West Indies. 
The British therefore felt free to strike a blow at the South. 
A fleet and army accordingly sailed from New York and 

^ Read Thompson's Alice of Old Vincenncs. 

2 Farther east, nieanlime, a band of savages led by Colonel John Butler 
swept down from Fort Niagara, entered Wyoming Valley in northeastern Penn- 
sylvania, near the site of Wilkes-Barre, and perpetrated one of the most awful 
massacres in history (July 4, 1778). (Head Campbell's poem Gertrude of Wyo- 
ming). A little later another band, led by a son of Butler, burned the village 
of Cherry Valley in New York, and murdered many of the inhabitants — men, 
women, and children. Cruelties of this sort could not go unpunished. In the 
summer of 1779, therefore, General Sullivan with an army invaded the Indian 
country in central New York, burned forty Indian villages, destroyed their crops, 
cut down their fruit trees, and brought the Indians to the verge of famine. 




184 



THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 185 

December 29, 1778) captured Savannah. Georgia was then 
overrun, was declared conquered, and the royal governor was 
reestablished in office.^ 

The Americans Repulsed at Savannah. — Governor Rutledge 
of South Carolina now appealed to D'Estaing, who at once 
brought his fleet from the West Indies ; and Savannah was 
besieged by the American forces under Lincoln and the French 
under D'Estaing. After a long siege, an assault was made on 
the British defenses (October, 1779), in which the brave 
Pulaski was slain and D'Estaing was wounded. The French 
then sailed away, and Lincoln fell back into South Carolina. 

British capture Charleston. — Hearing of this, Sir Henry 
Clinton and Lord Cornwallis sailed with British troops from 
New York (December, 1779) to Savannah. Thence the British 
marched overland to Charleston. Lincoln did ail he could to 
defend the city, but in May, 1780, was compelled to surrender. 
Soutli Carolina was then overrun by the British, and Clinton 
returned to New York, leaving Cornwallis in command. 

Partisan Leaders. — South Carolina now became the seat 
of a bitter partisan war. The Tories there clamored for re- 
venge. That no man should be neutral, Cornwallis ordered 
every one to declare for or against the king, and sent officers 
with troops about the state to enroll the royalists in the militia. 
The whole population was thus arrayed in two hostile parties. 
The patriots could not offer organized opposition ; but little 
bands of them found refuge in the woods, swamps, and moun- 
tain valleys, whence they issued to attack the British troops 
and the Tories. Led by Andrew Pickens, Thomas Sumter, 
and Francis Marion whom the British called the Swamp Fox, 
they won many desperate fights.^ 

1 Congress now put Lincoln in command in the South ; but when he marched 
into Georgia, the British set olf to attack Charleston, sacking houses and 
slaughtering cattle as they went. This move forced Lincoln to follow them, 
and having been joined by Pulaski, he compelled the British to retreat. 

^ Four novels by Simms, — The Partisan, MeUichampt', Katharine. Walton, 
and The Scout, — and Horseshoe Robinson, by Kennedy, are famous stories 
relating to the Revolution in the South. Read Bryant's Song of Marianas Men. 



186 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTIOxN 



Camden. — Congress, however, had not abandoned the South. 
Two thousand men under De Kalb were marching south before 
the surrender of Charleston. After it, a call for troops was 
made on all the states south of Pennsylvania, and General 
Gates, then called " the Hero of Saratoga," was sent to join 
De Kalb and take command. The most important point in 
the interior of South Carolina was Camden, and against this 
Gates marched his troops. But he managed matters so badly 
that near Camden the American army was beaten, routed, 
and cut to pieces by the British under Cornwallis (August 16, 

1780).! 

The War in the North. — What 
meantime had happened in the North ? 
The main armies near New York had 
done little fighting ; but the British 
had made a number of sudden raids 
on the coast. In 1779 Norfolk and 
Portsmouth in Virginia, and New 
Haven and several other towns in 
Connecticut had been attacked, and 
ships and houses burned. In New 
York, Clinton captured Stony Point ; 
but Anthony Wayne led a force of 
Americans against the fort, and at 
dead of night, by one of the most 
brilliant assaults in the world's military history, recaptured 
it (July, 1779). 2 




Wayne's camp kettle. 

Now in the possession of the Penn- 
sylvania Historical Society. 



1 A large number of men were killed, and a thousand taken prisoners. 
Among the dead was De Kalb. Among the living was Gates, who fled among 
the first and made such haste to escape that he covered two hundred miles in 
four days. 

2 The purpose of the attack on Stony Point was to draw the British from 
Connecticut. The capture had the desired result, and Stony Point was then 
abandoned. The fort stood on a rocky promontory with the water of the Hudson 
River on three sides. On the fourth was a morass crossed by a narrow road 
which at high tide was under water. The country between the British forces in 
New York and the American army on the highlands of the Hudson was known 
as the neutral ground, and is the scene of Cooper's great novel The Spy. 



THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 



187 



Treason of Arnold. — Stony Point was one of several forts 
built by order of Washington to defend the Hudson. The 
chief fort was at West Point, the command of which, in July, 
1780, was given to Arnold. When the British left Philadel- 
phia in 1778, Arnold was made military commander there, and 
so conducted himself that he was sentenced bv court-martial 




At West Point : looking up the Hudson. 



to be reprimanded by Washington. This censure, added to 
previous unfair treatment by Congress, led him to seek revenge 
in the ruin of his country. To bring this about he asked 
for the command of West Point, and having received it, offered 
to surrender the fort to the British. 

Clinton's agent in the matter was Major John Andre 
(an'drii), who one day in September, 1780, came up the river 
in tlie British sliip Vulture, went ashore, and at night met Arnold 

MCM. HRIEF 12 



188 THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 

near Ston}^ Point. Morning came before the terms ^ of surren- 
der were arranged, and the Vulture having been fired on dropped 
down the river out of range. 

West Point Saved. — Thus left within the American lines, 
Andre crossed the river to the east shore, and started for New 
York by land, but was stopped by three Americans,^ searched, 
and papers of great importance were found in his stockings. 
Despite an offer of his watch and money for his release, Andre 
was delivered to the nearest American officer, was later tried by 
court-martial, found guilty, and sentenced to be hanged as a spy. 

The American officer to whom Andre was delivered, not 
suspecting Arnold, sent the news to him as well as to Washing- 
ton. Arnold received the message first ; knowing that Wash- 
ington was at hand, he at once procured a boat, was rowed 
down the river to the Vulture, and escaped. From then till 
the end of the war he served as an officer in the British army. 

The disasters at Charleston and Camden, and the narrow 
escape from disaster at West Point, made 1780 the most dis- 
heartening year of the war. 

Kings Mountain. — But the tide quickly turned. After his 
victory at Camden, Cornwallis began to invade North Carolina, 
and sent Colonel Ferguson into the South Carolina highlands to 
enlist all the Tories he could find. As Ferguson advanced into 
the liill country, the backwoodsmen and mountaineers rallied 
from all sides, and led by Sevier, Shelby, and Williams, sur- 
rounded him and forced him to make a stand on the summit of 
Kings Mountain, October 7, 1780. Fighting in true Indian 
fashion from behind every tree and rock, they shot Ferguson's 
army to pieces, killed him, and forced the few survivors to sur- 
render. This victory forced Cornwallis to put off his conquest 
of North Carolina. 

1 The British were to come up the river and attack West Point. Arnold was 
to man the defenses in such a way that they could easily be taken, one at a 
time, and so afford an excuse for surrendering them, with the three thousand 
men under Arnold's command. 

2 The names of Andre's captors were John Paulding, David Williams, and 
Isaac Van Wart. Congress gave each a medal and a pension for life. 



THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 



189 



Cowpens. — General Greene was now sent to replace Gates 
in command of the patriot army in the South. He was too 
weak to attack Cornwallis, but by dividing his army and secur- 
ing the aid of the partisan bands he lioped to annoy the British 
with raids. Morgan, who commanded one of these divisions, was 
so successful that Cornwallis sent Tarleton with a thousand men 
against him. Morgan offered battle on the grounds known as 
the Cowpens, and there Tarleton was routed and tliree fourths 
of his men were killed, wounded, or taken [jrisonnrs. 




Battle of the Cowpens. 

The Great Retreat. — This victory won, Moi-gan set off to 
join Greene, with C()rnwallis himself in hot pursuit. When 
Greene heard the news, he determined to draw the British 
general far northward and then fight him wherever he would be 
at most disadvantage.! The retreat of the American army 
was therefore continued to the border of Virginia. 

1 To accomplish this Greene sent the greater part of his army northward 
under General Huger, while he with a small guard hurried across country, and 
took command of Morgan's army. And now a most exciting chase began. 



190 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



Guilford Court House. — Having received reenforcements, 
Greene turned southward and offered battle at Guilford Court 

House (March 15, 1781). 
A desperate fight ensued, 
and when nightcame, Greene 
retired, leaving tlie British 
unable to follow him . Corn- 
wallis had lost one quarter 
of his army in killed and 
wounded. He was in the 
midst of a hostile country, 
too weak to stay, and un- 
willing to confess defeat by 
retreating to South Caro- 
lina. Thus outgeneraled 
he hurried to Wilmington, 
w^here he could be aided by 
the British fleet. 

Greene followed for a 
time, and then turned into 
South Carolina, drove the 
British out of Camden, and 
by the 4th of July had re- 
conquered half of South 
('arolina. Late in August, 
he forced the British back to 
Eutaw Springs, where (Sep- 
tember 8, 1781) a desperate battle was fought. ^ The British 
troops held their ground, but on the following night they set 

Coniwallis destroyed his heavy baggage that he might move as rapidly as possible, 
and vainly strove to get near enough to Greene to make him fight. Greene with 
great skill kept just out of reach and for ten days lured the British farther and 
farther north. At Guilford Court House Greene and Morgan were joined by the 
main army. Cornwallis then proclaimed North Carolina conquered, and called 
on all Loyalists to join him. 

1 Two good works relating to these events are The Forayers and Eutaw, by 
Simms. 




Lafayette monument, Washington, D. C. 



" THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 191 

off for Charleston, where they remained until the end of the 
war.i 

Yorktown. — From Wilmington Cornwallis marched to 
southeastern Virginia, where a British force under Benedict 
Arnold joined him. He then set off to capture Lafayette, 
who had been sent to defend Virginia from Arnold. But 
Lafayette retreated to the back country, till reenforcements 
came. When Cornwallis could drive him no farther, the British 
army retreated to the coast, and fortified itself at Yorktown. 

In August Washington received word that a large French 
fleet under De Grasse was about to sail from the West Indies 
to Chesapeake Bay. He saw that the supreme moment had come. 
Laying aside his plan for an attack on New York, he harried 
southward, marched his army to the head of Chesapeake Bay, 
and then took it by ships to Yorktown. ^ The French fleet 
was already in tlie bay. Some French troops had joined Lafay- 
ette, and Cornwallis was already surrounded when Washington 
arrived. The siege was now pressed Avith overwhelming force, 
and Cornwallis surrendered on October 19, 1781. 

End of the War. — Swift couriers carried the news to 
Philadelphia, where, at the dead of night, the people were 
roused from sleep by the watchman crying in the street, " Past 
two o'clock and Cornwallis is taken." In the morning 
Congress received the dispatches and went in solemn procession 
to a church to give thanks to God. 

When the British prime minister. Lord North, heard the 
news, he exclaimed, " All is over ; all is over ! " The king 

1 While these things were happening in the South, a French army of 
6000 men under Rochambeau arrived at Newport (1780), from which the 
British had withdrawn in 1779. There, for a while, the French fleet was 
blockaded by the British, and the troops remained to aid the fleet in case of 
necessity. The next year, however, this army marched across Connecticut and 
joined Wasliington's forces (July, 1781), and preparations were begun for an 
attack on New York. 

- When Clinton realized that Washington was on the way to Yorktown, he 
sent Arnold on a raid into Connecticut, in hope of forcing Washington to 
return. Early in September Arnold attacked New London, carried one of its 
forts by storm, and set fire to the town, but was driven off by the niinutemen. 



192 



THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION 



alone remained stubborn, and for a while insisted on holding 

Georgia, Charleston, and New York. But his advisers in 

_ time persuaded 

him to yield, and 
(November 30, 
1782) a prelimi- 
nary treaty, ac- 
knowledging the 
independence of 
the United States, 
was signed at 
Paris. ^ The final 
treaty was not 
signed till Sep- 
tember 3, 1783.2 




Washington's headquarters at Newburg. 

From an old |iriMt. 



In November the Continental army was disbanded, and in 
December, at Annapolis, where Congress was sitting, Washing- 
ton formally surrendered his command, and went home to 
Mount Vernon.^ 

1 Congress appointed Benjamin Franklin (our minister in France), Jolin 
Adams (in Holland), John Jay (in Spain), Thomas Jefferson, and Henry Laurens 
to negotiate the treaty. Jefferson's appointment came too late for him to serve; 
the other four signed the treaty of 1782, and Franklin, Adams, and Jay signed 
the treaty of 1783. 

2 After the surrender of Cornwall is, Washington returned with his army to 
the Hudson and made his headquarters at Newburg. In April, 1783, a cessa- 
tion of war on land and sea was formally proclaimed, and the British prepared 
to leave New York, Charleston and Savannah were evacuated in 1782, but No- 
vember 25, 1783, came before the last British soldier left New York. When 
the troops under Washington entered New York city, they found a British flag 
nailed to the staff, the halyards gone, and the staff soaped. A sailor climbed the 
pole by nailing on cleats, pulled down the British flag, and reeved new halyards. 
The stars and stripes were then raised and saluted with thirteen guns. 

3 Washington refused to be paid for his services. Actual expenses during 
the war were all he would take, and these amounted to about $70,000. 



SUMMARY 

1. Despite the king's proclamation in 1763, frontiersmen soon crossed 
the mountains and settled in what is now Kentucky and Tennessee. 

2. In the region north of the Ohio were a few British forts, some of 



THE WAR IN THE SOUTH 193 

wliich George Rogers Clark captured in 1778 and 177!» ; l>iit Fort St. Josepli 
ill Micliigau was captured by the Spanish. 

3. At the end of 177o the British began an attack on the Southern 
states by capturing Savannah. 

4. Georgia was then overrun. The Americans, aided by a French 
fleet, attackeil Savannah and were repulsed (1779). 

5. In 1780, reeuforced by a fleet and army from New York, tlie British 
captured Charleston and overran South Carolina. The Americans under 
Gates were badly beaten at Camden ; but a British force was destroyed at 
Kings Mountain. 

G. In the same year Benedict Arnold turned traitor, and souglit in vain 
to deliver West Point to the Britisii. 

7. In the following year (1781) our arms were generally victorious. 
Morgan won the battle of the Cowpens ; Greene outgeneraled Cornwallis 
and then reconquered South Carolina. At the end of the year Charleston 
and Savannah were the only Southern towns held by the British. 

8. Cornwallis marched into Virginia, and fortified himself at York- 
town. There Washington, aided by a French army and fleet, forced him 
to surrender (1781). 

D. Peace was made next year, our independence was acknowledged, 
and by the end of 1783 the last British soldiers had left the country. 




194 



CHAPTER XVI 
AFTER THE WAR 

Our Boundaries — By the treaty of 1783 our country was 
bounded on the north by a Hue (very much as at present) from 
the mouth of the St. Croix River in Maine to the Lake of the 
Woods ; on the west by the Mississippi River ; and on the south 
by the parallel of 31° north latitude from the Mississippi to tlie 
Apalachicola, and then by the present south boundary of 
(xeorgia to the sea.^ 

But our flag did not as yet wave over every part of the 
country within these bounds, (xreat Britain, claiming that cer- 
tain provisions in the treaty had been violated, held the forts 
from Lake Champlain to Lake Michigan and would not with- 
draw her troops. 2 Spain, having received the Floi-idas back 
from Great Britain by a treaty of 1783, held the forts at Mem- 
phis, Baton Rouge, and Vicksburg, and much of what is now 
Alabama and Mississippi.^ 

1 Both France and Spain had tried to shut us out of the Mississippi valley. 
Read Fiske's Critical Period of Americnn History, pp. ]7-2ii. 

2 By the treaty of 1788 Congress provided that all debts due British subjects 
might be recovered by law, and that the states should be asked to pay for contls- 
cated property of the Loyalists. But the states would not permit the recovery 
of the debts nor pay for the property taken from the Loyalists. Great Britain, 
by holding the forts along our northern frontier, controlled the fur trade and the 
Indians, and ruled the country about the forts. These were Dutchman's Point, 
Point au Fer, Oswegatchie, Oswego, Niagara, Erie, Detroit, Mackinaw. 

3 To understand her conduct we must remember that in 17fi4, sliortly after 
the French and Indian War, Great Britain made 32° 28' north latitude (througii 
the mouth of the Yazoo, p. 148) the north boundary of West Florida ; and 
although Great Britain in her treaty with us made 81° the boundary be- 
tween us and West Florida, Spain insisted that it should be 82° 28'. Spain's 
claim to the Northwest, founded on her occupation of Fort St. .loseph (p. 188). 
had not been allowed ; she was therefore the more determined to expand her 
claims in the South. 

190 



AFTER THE WAR 197 

A Central Government. — From 1775 to 1781 the states were 
governed, so far as they had any general government, by tlie 
Continental Congress. During these years there was no writ- 
ten document fixing the powers of Congress and limiting the 
powers of the states. While the war was going on, Congress 
submitted a plan for a general government, called Ai'ticles of 
Confederation and Perpetual Union; but nearly four years 
passed, before all the states accepted it. The delay was caused 
by the refusal of Maryland to approve the Articles unless the 
states having sea-to-sea charters would give to Congress, for 
the public good, the lands they claimed beyond the mountains.^ 

Congress therefore appealed to the states to cede their 
Western lands. If they would do this. Congress promised to 
sell the lands, use the money to pay the debts of the United 
States, and cut the region into states and admit them into the 
Union at the proper time. New York, Connecticut, and Virginia 
at last agreed to give up their lands northwest of the Ohio 
River, and on March 1, 1781, the Maryland delegates signed 
the Articles and by so doing put them in force. ^ 

The Articles of Confederation, — In the government set up 
by the Articles of Confederation there was no President of the 
United States, no Supreme Court, no Senate. Congress consisted 
of a single body to which each state sent at least two delegates, 
and might send any number up to seven. The members were 
elected annually, were paid by the states they represented, could 
not serve more than three years in six, and might be recalled at 



1 The states claiming such lands by virtue of their colonial charters were 
Massachusetts, Connecticut, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Georgia. 
New York had acquired the Iroquois title to lands in the West. Her claim con- 
flicted with those of Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. The claims of 
Connecticut and Massachusetts covered lands included in the Virginia claim. 
Maryland denied the validity of all the.se claims, for these reasons: (1) the 
Mississippi valley belonged to France till 1763 ; (2) when France gave the valley 
east of the Mississippi to Great Britain in ITG.i, it became crown land ; (.3) in 
1763 the king drew the line around the sources of the rivers flowing into the 
Atlantic Ocean, and forbade the colonists to settle beyond that line (p. 143). 

^ The Articles were not to go into effect till every state signed. Maryland 
was the thirteenth state to sign. 



198 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

any time. Each state cast one vote, and nine affirmative votes 
were necessary to carry any important measure. Congress 
could make war and peace, enter into treaties with foreign 
powers, coin money, contract debts in the name of the United 
States, and call upon each state for its share of the general 
expenses. 

The States cede Lands. — Although three states had tendered 
their Western lands when Maryland signed the Articles, the 
conditions of cession were not at once accepted by Congress, 
and some time passed before the deeds were delivered. By the 
year 1786, however, the claims northwest of the Ohio had been 
ceded by New York, Virginia,^ Massachusetts, and Connecti- 
cut.2 South of the Ohio, what is now West Virginia and Ken- 
tucky still belonged to Virginia. North Carolina offered what is 
now Tennessee to Congress in 1784,^ but the conditions were not 
then accepted, and that territory was not turned over to Con- 
gress till 1790. The long, narrow strip of western land owned 
by South Carolina was ceded to Congress in 1787. South of 
this was a strip owned by Georgia, and farther south lands long 
in dispute between Georgia and Spain and Congress. Georgia 
did not accept her present western limits till 1802. 

Migration Westward. — Into the country west of the moun- 
tains the people were moving in tliree great streams. One from 
New England was pushing out along the Mohawk valley into 
central New York ; another from Pennsylvania and Virginia 

1 Virginia reserved ownership of a large tract called the Virginia Military 
Lands. It lay in what is now Ohio between the Scioto and Little Miami rivers 
(map, p. 201), and was used to pay bounties to her soldiers of the Revolution. 

2 Connecticut reserved the ownership (and till 1800 the government) of a 
tract 120 miles long, west of Pennsylvania. Of this " Western Ke-serve of Con- 
necticut," some 500,000 acres were set apart in 1792 for the relief of persons 
whose houses and farms had been burned and plundered by the British. Tlie 
rest was sold and the money used as a school fund. 

3 When the settlers on the Watauga (pp. 181, 182) heard of this, they 
became alarmed lest Congress should not accept the cession, and forming a new 
state which they called Franklin, applied to Congress for admission into the 
Union. No attention was given to the application. North Carolina repealed 
the act of cession, arranged matters with the settlers, and in 1787 the Franklin 
government dissolved. 



AFTER THE WAR 



199 



was pouring its population into Kentucky; the third from 
North Carolina was overrunning Tennessee. 

For this movement the hard times which foUowedthe Revo- 
lution were hirgely the cause. Compared with our time, the 
means of making a livelihood were few and far less remunera- 
tive. Great mills and factories each employing thousands of 
persons had no existence. The im- 
ports from Great Britain far sur- 
passed in value our exports; the 
difference was settled in specie 
(coin) taken from 
the country. The 
people were poor, 
and as land in the 
West was cheap, 
they left the East 
and went westward. 

Routes to the 
Ohio Valley. — New 
England people 
bound to the Ohio 
valley went through 
Connecticut to 
Kingston, New 
York, on across New 

Jersey to Easton, A settlers log cabin. 

Pennsylvania, and thence to Bedford, where they struck the 
road cut years before by the troops of General Forbes, and by 
it went to Pittsburg (p. 194). Settlers from Maryland and 
Virginia went generally to Fort Cumberland in Maryland, 
and then on by Braddock's Road to Pittsbui-g, or turned 
off and reached the Monongahela at Redstone, or the Ohio 
at Wheeling (map, p. 201). 

Such was the rusli to the Ohio valley that each spring and 
summer hundreds of boats and arks left Pittsburg and Wheeling 
or Redstone, and floated down the Ohio to Maysville, Louisville, 




200 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 







t 




^^ 


i»^ 


il^ak , 


!PF^.<' 




E. 


I^?T-^-aM. 


:— ^ 


* ^%-- '?p'i|; *; 




||jQ_^^;,gg,g^,gpgg|PP||^|^^ 


w^ 


1 


^^\j if ' ''-: '.:v1-^B3lPiii^ 


MHtewt^- : j^ 


F - 


'■---../ 


■ ■■~^^- 



Ohio River flatboat of about 1840. 

The boat is like tliose used in earlier times. 

and other places in Kentucky. ^ The flatboat was usually twelve 
feet wide and forty feet long, with high sides and a flat or 
slightly arched top, and was steered, and when necessary was 
rowed, by long oars or sweeps. Some were arranged to carry 
cattle as well as household goods. 

The Ohio Company of Associates. — Meanwhile, some old 
soldiers of New Phigland and New Jersey who had claims for 
bounty lands,^ organized the Ohio Company of Associates, and 

^ The favorite time for the river trip was from February to May, vphen there 
was high water in the Ohio and its tributaries the Allegheny and Monongahela. 
Then the voyage from Pittsburg to Louisville could be made in eight or ten days. 
An observer at Pittsburg in 1787 saw 50 flatboats depart in six weeks. Another 
man at Fort Finney counted 177 passing boats with 2700 people in eight 
months. 

2 In order to encourage enlistment in the army, Congress had offered to 
give a tract of land to each officer and man who served through the war. The 
premium in land, or gift, over and above pay, was known as land bounty. 



AFTER THE WAR 



201 



in 1787 sent an agent (Manasseh Cutler) to New York, where 
Congress was sitting, and bade him buy a great tract of land 
northwest of the Ohio, on which they might settle. 

The Ordinance of 1787. — When Cutler reached New York, 
he found Congress debating a measure of great importance. 
This was an ordinance for tlie government of the Northwest 




The southern part of the Northwest Territory. 

Territory, including the whole region from tlie Lakes to the 
Ohio, and from Pennsylvania to the Mississippi. When 
passed, this famous Ordinance of 1787 provided — 

1. That until five thousand free white males lived in the 
territory, the governing bod}^ should be a governor and three 
judges appointed by Congress. 

2. That when there were five thousand free white men in 
the territory, they might elect a legislature and send a delegate 
to Congress. 

3. That slavery should not be permitted in the territory, 
but that fugitive slaves should be returned. 

4. That the territory should in time be cut up into not 
more than five, or less than three, states. 

5. That when the population of each division numbered 



202 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

sixty thousand, it should be admitted into the Union on the 
same footing as the original states. 

Ohio Settled. — After the ordinance was passed, Cutler 
bought five million acres of land north of the Ohio River, and 
in the winter of 1787-88 a party of young men sent out by 
the Ohio Company made their way from New England to a 
branch of the Monongahela River. There they built a great 
boat, and when the ice broke up, floated down the Ohio to the 
lands of the Ohio Company, where they erected a few log huts 
and a fort of hewn timber which they called Campus Martins. 
The little settlement was called Marietta. ^ 

Farther down the Ohio, on land owned by John Cleve 
Symmes and associates, Columbia and Losantiville, afterward 
called Cincinnati, were founded in 1788. 

State Boundaries. — The old charters which led to the con- 
flicting claims to land in the West, caused like disputes in the 
East. Massachusetts claimed a strip of country embracing 
western New York, and did not settle the dispute till 1786. ^ 
A similar dispute between Connecticut and Pennsylvania was 
settled in 1782. ^ New York claimed all Vermont as having 
once been part of New Netherland ; but Vermont was really 

1 Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. A'., Vol. I, pp. 505-519. 
All the land bought by the Ohio Company was not for its use. A large part was 
for another, known as the Scioto Company, w)nch sent an agent to Paris and sold 
the land to a French company. This, in turn, sold in small pieces to Frenchmen 
eager to leave a country then in a state of revolution. In 1790, accordingly, 
several hundred emigrants reached Alexandria, Virginia, and came on to the 
little square of log huts, with a blockhouse at each corner, which ths company had 
built for them and named Gallipolis. Most of them were city -bred artisans, 
unfit for frontier life, who suffered greatly in the wilderness. 

2 The land was included in the limits laid down in the charter of Massachu- 
setts ; but that charter was granted after the Dutch were in actual possession of 
the upper Hudson. In 178G a north and south line was drawn 82 miles west of 
the Delaware. Ownership of the land west of that line went to Massachusetts ; 
but jurisdiction over the land, the right to govern, was given to New York. 

3 Connecticut, under her sea-to-sea grant from the crown, claimed a strip 
across northern Pennsylvania, bought some land there from the Indians (1754), 
and some of her people settled on the Susquehanna in what was known as the 
Wyoming Valley (1762 and 17ti9). The dispute which followed, first with the 
Penns and then with the state of Pennsylvania, dragged on till a court of arbi- 
tration appointed by the Continental Congress decided in favor of Pennsylvania. 



AFTER THE WAR 203 

an independent republic. ^ In Kentucky the people were in- 
sisting that their country be separated from Virginia and made 
a state. 

Trouble with Spain. — Congress had trouble in trjdng to se- 
cure from foreign nations fair treatment for our commerce, and 
was involved in a dispute over the navigation of the Missis- 
sippi. Spain owned both banks at the mouth of the river, and 
denied the right of Americans to go in or out without her con- 
sent. The Spanish minister who came over in 1785 was ready 
to make a commercial treaty if the river was closed to naviga- 
tion for twenty-five years, and the Eastern states were quite 
ready to agree to it. But the people of Kentucky and Tennes- 
see threatened to leave the Union if cut off from the sea, and 
no treaty was made with Spain till 1795. 

The Weakness of the Confederation. — The question of trade 
and commerce with foreign powers and between the states was 
very serious, and the weakness of Congress in this and other 
matters soon wrecked tlie Confederation. 

1. In the first place, the Articles of Confederation gave 
Congress no power to levy taxes of any kind. Money, there- 
fore, could not be obtained to pay the debts of the United 
States, or the annual cost of government.^ 

2. Congress had no power to regulate the foreign trade. As 
there were few articles manufactured in the country, china, glass, 
cutlery, edged tools, hardware, woolen, linen, and many other 
articles of daily use were imported from Great Britain. As 

i Because of Champlain's discovery of the lake which now bears his name 
(p. 115), the French claimed most of Vermont ; on their early maps it appears as 
part of New France, and as late as 1739 they made settlements in it. About 
1750 the governor of New Hampshire granted land in Vermont to settlers, and 
the country began to be known as " New Hampshire Grants "; but in 1763 New 
York claimed it as part of the region given to the Duke of York in 1()(34. This 
brought on a bitter dispute which was still raging when, in 1777, the settlers 
declared New Hampshire Grants "a free and independent state to be called New 
Connecticut." Later the name was changed to Vermont. But the Continental 
Congress, for fear of displeasing New York, never recognized Vermont as 
a state. 

■^ Each state was bound to pay its share of the annual expenses; but they 
failed or were unable to do so. 



204 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 




'^hcM It. equal tc Cyici/crvrvurvt^m. 
a/nd^7n>clw unu/yui ef catndyfU'OiT' 

'^cim cd~y°HaA-cfCmu-^cru7icU<Sig^ 
tte.Tx.^inUlt/?iqs^l?wnix. an/:tJ'AaU t'e- 
j^J accefl&d in ait c/o/i^me^xts a/nd i/n 11 

TreafutjP0RT6M0UTiT 



Great Britain took little from us, these goods were largely paid 
for in specie, which grew scarcer and scarcer each year. Great 
Britain, moreover, hurt our trade by shutting our vessels out of 

her West Indies, and by 
heavy duties on Ameri- 
can goods coming to her 
ports in American ships. ^ 
Congress, having no 
power to regulate trade, 
could not retaliate by 
treating British ships in 
the same way. 

3. Congress had no 
power to regulate trade 
between the states. As 
a consequence, some of 
the states laid heavy 
duties on goods imported 
from other states. Re- 
taliation followed, and 
the safety of the Union 
was endangered. 

4. Congress did not 
have sole power to coin 
money and regulate tlie 
value thereof. There 
were, therefore, nearly as 

many kinds of paper money as there were states, and the money 
issued by each state passed in others at all sorts of value, or 
not at all. This hindered interstate trade. 

5. Congress could not enforce treaties. It could make 
treaties with other countries, but only the states could compel the 
people to observe them, and the states did not choose to do so. 

1 Why would not Great Britain make a trade treaty with us ? Read Fiske's 
Critical Period, pp. 136-142 ; also pp. 142-147, about difficulties between the 
states. 




New Hampshire colonial paper money. 

Similar bills were issued by the states before 1789. 



AFTER THE WAR 205 

Congress asks for More Power. — Of the defects in the Ar- 
ticles of Confederation Congress was fully aware, and it asked the 
states to amend the Articles and give it more authority.^ To do 
this required the assent of all the states, and as the consent of 
thii-teen states could not be obtained, the additional powers were 
not given to Congress. 

This soon brought matters to a crisis. With no regulation 
of trade, the pnrcliase of more and more goods from British 
merchants made money so scarce that the states were forced to 
print and issue large amounts of paper bills. In Massachu- 
setts, when the legislature refused to issue such currency, the 
debtors rose and, led by a Revolutionary officer named Daniel 
Shays, prevented the courts from trying suits for the recov- 
ery of debts. The governor called out troops, and several 
encounters took place before a bitter winter dispersed the in- 
surgents.^ 

The Annapolis Trade Convention. — In this condition of 
affairs, Virginia invited her sister states to send delegates to 
a convention at Annapolis in 1786. They were to " take into 
consideration the trade and commerce of the United States." 
Five states sent delegates, but the convention could do nothing, 
because less than half the states were present, and because the 
powers of the delegates were too limited. A request was there- 
fore made by it that Congress call a convention of the states 
to meet at Philadelphia and " take into consideration the situa- 
tion of the United States." 

The Constitutional Convention. — Congress issued the call 
early in 1787, and delegates from twelve states^ met at Phila- 
delphia and framed the Constitution of the United States. 



1 Congress asked for authority to do three things : (1) to levy taxes on im- 
ported goods, and use the money so obtained to discharge the debts due to 
France, Holland, and Spain ; (2) to lay and collect a special tax, and use the 
money to meet the annual expenses of government ; and (8) to regulate trade 
with foreign countries. 

2 The story of Shays's Rebellion is told in fiction in Bellamy's Duke of Stock- 
bridge. Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. I, pp. 31o-326. 

3 All the states except Rhode Island. 






206 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

Washington was made president of the convention, and among 
the members were many of the ablest men of the time.^ 

The Compromises. — 

^•■«^" "^^'*^'-, 111 the course of the de- 

.^ Th^ Prefident Vv bates in the convention 

ff Prejents his Compiimnu to V great diffcrencc of opin- 

io K_y^^33z^,^T^r^^,^ \ ion arose on several mat- 

's and requefti the Favour of ■ ;^^ Company at Dinner, a tcrS, 

^ onU'^-^^^Q^^at ^ ^o'clock. ^ Tlic Small states 

4 » — 4^-^^- J'" wanted a Congress of 

•^>^ ^ 77"^ — ■ v^ 

r*" one house, and equality 

of state representation, 
invitation sent^by Washmg^^^^^ as president ^^j^^ ^^^^^ ^^^^^^ ^^,^^^^^^ 

In the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical ^ CoUgreSS of twO hoUSCS, 

^'"^"*'^- with representation in 

proportion to population. This difference of opinion was so 
serious that a compromise was necessary, and it was agreed 
that in one branch (House of Representatives) the people 
should be represented, and in the other (Senate) the states. 

The question then arose whether slaves should be counted 
as population. The Southern delegates said yes; the Northern, 
no. It was finally agreed that direct taxes and representatives 
should be apportioned according to population, and that three 
fifths of the slaves should be counted as population. This was 
the second compromise. 

The convention agreed that Congress should regulate foreign 
commerce. But the Southern members objected that by means 

1 One had written the Albany Plan of Union ; some had been members of the 
Stamp Act Congress ; some had signed the Declaration of Independence, or the 
Articles of Confederation ; two had been presidents and twenty-eight had been 
members of Congress ; seven had been or were then governors of states. In 
after times two (Washington and Madison) became Presidents, one (Elbridge 
Gerry) Vice President, four members of the Cabinet, two Chief Justices and 
two justices of the Supreme Court, five ministers at foreign courts, and many 
others senators and members of the House of Representatives. One, Franklin, 
has the distinction of having signed the Declaration of Independence, the treaty 
of alliance with France (1778), the treaty of peace with Great Britain (1783), 
and the Constitution of the United States, the four great documents in our early 
history. 



AFTER THE WAR 207 

of this power Congress might pass navigation acts limiting 
trade to American ships, which might raise freights on exports 
from the South. Man}^ Northern members, on the other hand, 
wanted the shive trade stopped. These two matters were there- 
fore made the basis of another compromise, by which Congress 
coukl pass navigation acts, but could not prohibit the slave 
trade before 1808. 

The Constitution Ratified. — When the convention had fin- 
ished its work (September IT, 1787), the Constitution^ was sent 
to the old (Continental) Congress, which referred it to the 
states, and the states, one by one, called on the people to elect 
delegates to conventions to ratify or reject the new plan of 
government. In a few states it was accepted without any 
demand for changes. In others it was vigorously opposed as 
likely to set up too strong a government. In iNIassachusetts, 
New York, and Virginia adoption was long in doubt. ^ 

By July, 1788, eleven states had ratified, and the Constitu- 
tion was in force as to these States. ^ 

1 Every student should read the Constitution, as printed near the end of this 
book or elsewhere, and should know about the three branches of government, 
legislative, executive, and judicial; the powers of Congress (Art. I, Sec. 8), of 
the President (Art. I, Sec. 7; Art. II, Sees. 2 and 3), and of the United States 
courts (Art. Ill) ; the principal powers forbidden to Congress (Art. I, Sec. 9) 
and to the states (Art. I, Sec. 10) ; the methods of amending the Constitution 
(Art. V) ; the supremacy of the Constitution (Art. VI). 

" To remove the many objections made to the new plan, and enal)le the 
people the better to understand it, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay wrote a series of 
little e-ssays for the press, in which they defended the Constitution, explained 
and discussed its provisions, and showed how closely it resembled the state con- 
stitutions. These essays were called The Federalist, and, gathered into book 
form (in 1788), have become famous as a treatise on the Constitution and on 
government. Tho.se who opposed the Constitution were called Anti-Federalists, 
and they wrote pamphlets and elaborate series of letters in the newspapers, 
signed by such names as Cato, Agrippa, A Countryman. They declared that 
Congress would overpower the states, that the President woidd become a despot, 
that the Courts would desti-oy liberty ; and they insisted that amendments should 
be made, guaranteeing liberty of speech, freedom of the press, trial by jury, no 
quartering of troops in time of peace, liberty of conscience. Pead McMaster's 
History of the People of the U. S., Vol. I, pp. 490-491 ; 478-479. 

3 Because the Constitution provided that it should go into force as soon as 
nine states ratified it. North Carolina and Rhode Island did not ratify till some 
months later, and, till they did, were not members of the new Union. 

Ml M. BRIEF 13 



208 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



Establishment of the New Government. ^ — The Continental 
Congress then appointed the first Wednesday in January, 1789, 
as the day on which electors of President should be chosen in 
the eleven states ; the first Wednesday in February as the day 
on which the electors should meet and vote for President ; and 
the first Wednesday in March (which happened to be the 4th 
of Mareli) as the day when the new Congress should assemble 
at New York and canvass the vote for President. 







Federal Hall, on Wall Street, New York. From an old print. 

Washington the First President. — When March 4 came, 
neither the Senate nor the House of Representatives had a 
quorum, and a month went by before the electoral votes were 
counted, and Washington and John Adams declared President 
and Vice President of the United States.^ 

1 In three of the eleven states then in the Union (Pennsylvania, Mary- 
land, and Virginia) the presidential electors were chosen by vote of the people. 
In Massachusetts the voters in each congressional district voted for two can- 
didates, and the legislature chose one of the two, and also two electors at large. 
In New Hampshire also the people voted for electors, but none receiving a 
majority vote, the legislature made the choice. Elsewhere the legislatures ap- 
pointed electors ; but in New York the two branches of the legislatui-e fell into 
a dispute and failed to choose any. Washington received the first vote of all 
the 69 electors, and Adams received 34 votes, the next highest number. 



AFTER THE WAR 209 

Some time now elapsed before Washington could be noti- 
fied of his election. More time was consumed by the long 
journey from Mount Vernon to New York, where, on April 30, 
1789, standing on the balcony of Federal Hall, he took the oath 
of office in the presence of a crowd of his fellow-citizens.. 

SUMMARY 

1. The treaty of peace defined the boundaries of our country; but 
Great Britain continued to hold the forts along the north, and Spain to oc- 
cupy the country in the southwest. 

2. Seven of the thirteen states claimed the country west of the moun- 
tains. 

8. The other six, especially IMaryland, denied these claims, and this 
dispute delayed the adoption of the Articles of Confederation till 1781. 

4. By the year 178(3 the lands northwest of the Ohio had been ceded 
to Congress. 

5. In 1787, therefore, Congress formed the Northwest Territory. 

6. Certain states, meantime, were settling disputes as to their bound- 
aries in the east. 

7. We had trouble witli Spain over the right to use the lower Missis- 
sippi River, and with Great Britain over matters of trade. 

8. Six years' trial proved that the government of the United States 
was too weak under the Articles of Confederation. 

9. In 1787, therefore, the Constitution was framed, and within a year 
was ratified by eleven states. 

10. In 1789 Washington and Adams became President and Vice Presi- 
dent, and government under the Constitution began. 



CHAPTER XVII 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1789 



The States. — When Washington became President, the thir- 
teen original states of the Union ^ were in many respects very 
unlike the same states in our day. In some the executive was 
called president ; in others governor. In some he had a veto ; 
in others he had not. In some there was no senate. To be a 
voter in those days a man had to have an estate worth a certain 
sum of money ,2 or a specified annual income, or own a certain 
number of acres.^ 

Moreover, to be eligible as governor or a member of a state 
legislature a man had to own more property than was needed to 
qualify liim to vote. In many states it was further required 
that officeholders should be Protestants, or at least Cliristiaus, 
or should believe in the existence of God. 

The adoption of the Constitution made necessary certain 
acts of legislation by the states. They could issue no more 
bills of credit ; provision therefore had to be made for the re- 



1 The states ratified the Constitution on the dates given below : ■ 

1. Delaware . . 

2. Pennsylvania 

3. New Jersey 

4. Georgia . . . 
a. Connecticut . 
<). Massachusetts 
7. Maryland . . 



Dec. 7, 1787 


8. 


South Carolina . 


May 23, 


1788 


Dec. 12, 17«7 


9. 


New Hampshire . 


June 21, 


1788 


Dec. 18, 1787 


10. 
11. 


Virginia .... 


June 2<i 


1788 


Jan. 2, 1788 


New York . . . 


July 2(), 


1788 


Jan. 9, 1788 


12. 


North Carolina . 


Nov. 21 


1789 


Feb. 7, 1788 


13. 


Rhode Island . . 


May 29 


1790 


^pril 28, 1788 











2 In New Jersey any "person" having a freehold (real estate owned out- 
right or for life) worth £50 might vote. In New York each voter had to have a 
freehold of £20, or pay 40 shillings house rent and his taxes. In Ma.ssachusetts 
he had to have an estate of £60, or an income of £o from his estate. 

3 In Maryland 50 acres ; in South Carolina 50 acres or a town lot ; in Geor- 
gia £10 of taxable property. 

210 




OUR COUNTRY IN 1789 211 

demption of those outstanding. They could lay no duties on 
imports; such as had laid import duties had to repeal their laws 
and abolish their customhouses. All lighthouses, beacons, 
buoys, maintained by individual states were surrendered to 
the United States, and in other ways the states had to adjust 
themselves to the new government. 

The National Debt. — Each of the states was in debt for 
money and snpplies used in the war ; and over the whole country 
hung a great debt contracted by the old Congress. Part of this 
national debt was repre- „ 

sented by bills of credit, f^ . €Qm'Jftf£?fT^ L. CU%9X^Gy^ | 

i0an-0niCeCeiUnCaT:eS,10t- ^^^ ^r^-,'^T>\7 qpHISBlLLlntitl«theBearerto6 

tprv pprtifipMtps and 'i S. A , A ■»■ „crive^s'gvv^^2/^.««^,ft9'j 

teiy Cei LlilCaieb, ana * ^ f^'A-^-r \\®Oi^a/^«<y, or the VaUie thereofO 

.1 i_ r *■ ■ I l^^'*- I lin G'Cd or S&er, accorduie to the Refo- '• 

many other sorts ot prom- ;, ^! l^^--,,£^t:J Lfons of the eo^t^g'xess, um « v 



ises to pay, which had be- 
come almost worthless. 
This was strictly true of 
the bills of credit or paper 
money issued in great quantities by the Continental Congress. ^ 
Besides this domestic debt owed to the people at home, there 
was a foreign debt, for Congress had borrowed a little money 
from Spain and a great deal from France and Holland. On 
this debt interest was due, for Congress had not been able to 
pay even that. 

1 When Congress was forced to assume the conduct of the war, money 
was needed to pay the troops. But the Congress then had no authority to tax 
either the colonies or the people, so (in 1775-81) it issued bills of credit, or Con- 
tinental money, of various denominations. A loan office was also established 
in each state, and the people were asked to loan Congress money and receive 
in return loan-office certificates bearing interest and payable in three years. 
But little money came from this source ; and the people refused to take the 
bills of credit at their face value. The states then made them legal tender, that 
is, made them lawful money for the payment of debts. But as they became 
more and more plentiful, prices of everything paid for in Continental money 
rose higher and higher. From an old bill of January, 1781, it appears that 
in Philadelphia a pair of boots cost $000 in paper dollars ; six yards of chintz, 
$900 ; eight yards of binding, $400 ; a skein of silk, |10 ; and butter, •'$20 a 
pound. In Boston at the same time sugar was $10 a pound ; beef, $8 ; and 
flour. $1575 a barrel. To say of anything that it was " not worth a continental " 
was to say that it was utterly worthless. 



:.©"©•>© <3"Sx©'>e' 
Continental paper money. 



212 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



The Money of the Country. — The Continental bills having 
long ceased to circulate, the currency of the country consisted 
of paper money issued by individual states, and the gold, silver, 
and copper coins of foreign countries. These passed by such 
names as the Joe or Johannes, the doubloon, pistole, moidore, 
guinea, crown, dollar, shilling, sixpence, pistareen, penny. A 
common coin was the Spanish milled dollar, which passed at 
different ratings in different parts of the country. ^ Congress 
in 1786 adopted the dollar as a unit, divided it into the half, quar- 
ter, dime, half dime, cent, and half cent, and ordered some cop- 
pers to be minted ; but very few were made by the contractor. 

Population. — Just how many people dwelt in our country 

before 1790 can only 








liv^ Setlledaroaln 1790 




Settled area in 1790. 



be guessed at. In 
that year they were 
counted for the first 
time, and it was then 
ascertained that they 
numbered 3,929,000 
(in the thirteen 
states) of whom 700,- 
000 were slaves. All 
save about 200,000 
dwelt along the sea- 
board, east of the mountains ; and nearly half were between 
Chesapeake Bay arid Florida. 

The most populous state was Virginia ; after her, next 
in order were Massachusetts (including Maine), Pennsylvania, 
North Carolina, and New York. 

The most populous city was Philadelphia, after which came 
New York, Boston, Charleston, and Baltimore. 

Life in the Cities. — What passed for thriving cities in those 
days were collections of a thousand or two houses, very few of 

1 In New England it was valued at six shillings ; in New York at eight ; in 
Pennsylvania at seven and six pence ; in South Carolina and Georgia at four 
shillings and eight pence. 




OUR COUNTRY IN 1789 213 

wliich made any pretension to architectural beauty, ranged 

along narrow streets, none of which were sewered, and few of 

which were paved or lighted even on nights when the moon did 

not shine. During daylight a few constables kept order. At 

night small parties of men called the night watch walked the 

streets. Each citizen Avas required ,^ ,^4__ 

to serve his turn on the watch or find 

a substitute or pay a fine. He bad to 

be a fireman and keep in his house 

near the front door a certain number LT'nni i %. 

of leather fire buckets with which at "^-^^S^^fep^^iM^^-^^ 

the clanging of the courthouse or mar- g^j-iy g^e engine. 

ket bell he would run to the burning 

building and take his place in the line which passed the full 

buckets from the nearest pump to the engine, or in the line 

which passed the empty buckets from the engine back to the 

l^ump. Water for household use or for putting out fires came 

from private wells or from the town pumps. There were no 

city water works. 

Lack of good and abundant water, lack of proper drainage, 
ignorance of the laws of health, filthy, unpaved streets, spread 
diseases of the worst sort. Smallpox was common. Yellow 
fever in the great cities was of almost annual occurrence, and 
often raged with the violence of a plague. 

Lack of Conveniences. — Few appliances which increase com- 
fort, or promote healtli, or save time or labor, were in use. 
Not even in the homes of the rich were there cook stoves or 
furnaces or open grates for burning anthracite coal, or a bath 
room, or a gas jet. Lamps and candles afforded light by night. 
The warming pan, the foot stove (p. 97), and the four-posted 
bedstead (p. 76), with curtains to be drawn when the nights 
were cold, were still essentials. The boy was fortunate who 
did not have to break the ice in his water pail morning after 
morning in winter. Clocks and watches Avere luxuries for the 
rich. The sundial was yet in use, and when the flight of time 
was to be noted in hours or parts, people resorted to the hour 



214 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



glass. Many a minister used one on Sundays to time his 
preaching by, and many a housewife to time her cooking. ^ 

No city had yet reached such size as 
to make street cars or cabs or omnibuses 
necessary. Time was less valuable than 
in our day. The merchant kept his own 
books, wrote all business letters with a 
quill pen, and waited for the ink to dry 
or sprinkled it with sand. There were no 
envelopes, no postage stamps, no letter 
boxes in the streets, no collection of the 
mails. The letter written, the paper was 
carefully folded, sealed with wax or a 
wafer, addressed, and carried to the post 
office, where postage was paid in money 
at rates which would now seem extor- 
tionate. A single sheet of paper was a 
single letter, and two sheets a double letter on which double 
postage was paid. Tliree mails a week between Philadelphia 
and New York, and two a week between New York and Boston, 




Hour glass. 

In Essex Hall, Salem. 




Quills as sold for making pens. In Esse.v Hall, Salem. 

were thought ample. The post offices in the country towns 
consisted generally of a drawer or a few boxes in a store. 

1 The hour glass consisted of two small glass bulbs joined by a small glass 
tube. In one bulb was as much fine sand as in the course of an hour could run 
through the tube into the other bulb. At auctions when ships or real estate were 
for sale it was common to measure time by burning an nich or more of candle ; 
that is, the bidding would go on till a certain length of candle was consumed. 



OUR OUNTRY IN 1789 215 

Newspapers could not be sent by mail, and there were few to 
send. Though the first newspaper in the colonies was printed 
in Boston as early as 1704, the first daily newspaper in our 
country was issued in Philadelphia in 1784. Illustrated news- 
papers, trade journals, scientific weeklies, illustrated raagazines,^ 
were unknown. Such newspapers as existed in 1789 were pub- 
lished most of them once a week, and a few twice, and were 
printed by presses worked by hand ; and no paper anywhere 
in our country was issued on Sunday or sold for as little as a 
penny. 

Books. — ^ In no city in 1790 could there have been found 
an art gallery, a free museum of natural history, a school or 
institute of any sort where instruction in the arts and sciences 
was given. There were many good private libraries, but 
hardly any that were open to public use. Books were mostly 
imported from Great Britain, or such as were sure of a ready 
sale were reprinted by some American publisher when enough 
subscribers were obtained to pay the cost. Of native authors 
very few had produced anything which is now read save by 
the curious. 2 

Schools and Colleges. — In education great progress had 
been made. There were as yet no normal schools, no high 
schools, no manual training schools, and, save in New England, 
no approach to the free common school of to-day. There were 
private, parish, and charity schools and academies in all the 
states. In many of these a small number of children of the 
poor, under certain conditions, might receive instruction in 

1 The Massachnsetts Magazine was illustrated with occasional engravings of 
cities and scenery ; but it was not what we know as an illustrated magazine. 
Read a description of the newspapers of this time in McMaster's Ilistonj of the 
People of the U. S., Vol. I, pp. 35-38. 

-Franklin is still the most popular of colonial writers. His autobiography, 
his Way to Wealth, and many of his e.ssays are still republished and widely read. 
The poetry of Philip Freneau, of .John Trumbull, and Francis Ilopkinson is still 
read by many ; but it was in political writing that our countrymen excelled. 
No people have.ever produced a finer body of political literature than that called 
forth by the Revolution. Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., 
Vol. I, pp. 74-80. 



216 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



reading, writing, and arithmetic. But as yet the states did 
not have the money with which to establish a great system of 
free common schools. 

Money in aid of academies and colleges was often raised by 
lotteries. Indeed, every one of the eight oldest colleges of tliat 




Painting by E. L. Henry 



An old-time private carriage. 



day had received such help.^ In each of these the classes were 
smaller, the course of instruction much simpler, and the gradu- 
ates much younger than to-day. In no country of that time 
were the rich and well-to-do better educated than in the United 
States,^ and it is safe to say that in none was primary education 

1 Harvard, William and Mary, Yale, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Columbia, 
Brown, and Dartmouth. In a lottery " di-awn " in 1797 for the benefit of Brown 
University, 9000 tickets were sold at ^Q each — a total of $54,000. Of this, 
$8000 was kept by the university, and $46,000 distributed in .8328 prizes — 2000 
at $9 each, 1000 at $12 each, and the rest from $20 to $400!). 

2 In the convention which framed the Constitution twenty of the fifty-five 
men were college graduates. Five were graduates of Princeton, three of Har- 
vard, three of Yale, three of William and Mary, two of Pennsylvania, one of 
King's (now Columbia), and one each of Oxford, Edinburgh, and Glasgow. 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1789 



217 



i^^llE^^^ 



ft 



— reading, writing", and arithmetic — more diffused among the 
people.^ 

Travel. — To travel from one city to another in 1789 re- 
quired at least as many days as it now does hours. ^ The stage- 
coach, horseback, or private con- 
veyances were the common means 
of land travel. The roads were bad 
and the large rivers unbridged, and 
in stormy weather or in winter tlie 
delays at the ferries were often very 
long. Breakdowns and upsets were 
common, and in rainy weather a 
traveler by stagecoach was fortu- 
nate if he did not have to help the 
driver pull the wheels out of the 
mud.^ 

The Inns and Taverns, some- 
times called coffeehouses or ordina- 
ries, .at which travelers lodged, were 
designated by pictured signs or em- 
blems hung before the door, and 
were given names which had no 
relation to their uses, as the Indian 
Head, the Crooked Billet, the Green 
Dragon, the Plow and Harrow. In 
these taverns dances or balls were held, and sometimes public 
meetings. To those in the country came sleigh-ride parties. 




Sign of the Indian Head Tavern, 
near Concord, Mass. 

Now in the possession of the Concord 
Antiquarian Society. 



1 The writings of men wlio were not college graduates — Washington, 
Franklin, Dickinson, and many others — speak well for the character of the 
early schools. 

- The journey from Boston to New York by land consumed six days, but 
may now be made in less than six hours. New York was a two days' journey 
from Philadelphia, but the distance may now be traversed in two hours. 

3 One pair of horses usually dragged the stage eighteen miles, when a fresh 
team was put on, and if no accident happened, the traveler would reach an inn 
about ten at night. After a frugal meal he would betake himself to bed, for at 
three the next morning, even if it rained or snowed, he had to make ready, by 
the light of a horn lantern or a farthing candle, for another ride of eighteen hours. 



218 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

From them the stagecoaches departed, and before their doors 
auctions were often held, and in the great room within were 
posted public notices of all sorts. 

The Shops were designated in much the same way as the 
inns, not by street numbers but by signs ; as the Lock and Key, 
the Lion and the Glove, the Bell in Hand, the Golden Ball, the 
Three Doves. One shop is described as near a certain bake- 
house, another as close by the townliouse, another as opposite 
a judge's dwelling. The shop was usually the front room of a 
little house. In the rear or overhead lived the tradesman, his 
family, and liis a])prentice. 

Methods of Business. — For his wares tlie tradesman took 
casli when he could get it, gave short credit with good security 
when he had to, and often was forced to resort to barter. 
Thus paper makers took rags for paper, brush makers exchanged 
brushes for hog's bristles, and a general shopkeeper took grain, 
wood, cheese, butter, in exchange for dry goods and clothing. 

Few of the modern methods of extending business, of seek- 
ing customers, of making the public aware of wliat the merchant 
had for sale, existed, even in a rude state. There were no com- 
mercial travelers, no means of widespread advertising. When 
an advertisement had been inserted in a newspaper whose circu- 
lation was not fifteen hundred copies, when a handbill had been 
posted in the markets and the coffeehouses, the means of 
reaching tlie public were exhausted. 

The Workingman. — Wliat was true of the merchant was 
true of men in every walk in life. Their opportunities were 
few, their labor was hard, their comforts of life were far 
inferior to what is now within their reach. In every great city 
to-day are men, women, and boys engaged in a liundred trades, 
professions, and occupations unknown in 1790. The great cor- 
porations, mills, factories, mines, railroads, the steamboats, rapid 
transit, the telegraph, the telephone, the typewriter, the sewing 
machine, the automobile, the postal delivery service, the police 
and fire departments, the banks and trust companies, the depart- 
ment stores, and scores of other inventions and business institu- 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1789 219 

tions of great cities, now giving employment to millions of 
human beings, have been created since 1790. 

The workino- day was from sunrise to sunset, with one hour 
for breakfast and another for dinner. Wages were about 
a third what they are now, and were less when the days were 
short than when they were long. The redemptioner was still 
in demand in the Middle States. In the South almost all labor 
was done by slaves. 

Slavery. — In the North slavery was on the decline. Wlule 
still under the crown, Virginia and several other colonies had 
attempted to check slavery by forbidding the importation of 
more slaves, but their laws for this purpose were disallowed 
by the king. After 1776 the states were free to do as they 
pleased in the matter, and many of them stopped the importa- 
tion of slaves. ^Moreover, before Congress shut slavery out of 
the Northwest Territory, the New England states and Pennsyl- 
vania had either abolished slavery outright or provided for its 
extinction by gradual abolition laws.^ 

Industries. — In New England the people lived on their own 
farms, wliich they cultivated with their own hands and with 
the help of their children, or engaged in codfisliing, whaling, 
lumbering, shipbuilding, and commerce. They built sliips and 
sold them abroad, or used them to carry away the products 
of New England to the South, to the ports of France, Spain, 
Russia, Sweden, the West Indies, and even to China. To the 
West Indies went horses, cattle, lumber, salt fish, and mules ; 
and from tliem came sugar, molasses, coffee, indigo, wines. 
From Sweden and Russia came iron, hemp, and duck. 

The Middle States produced much grain and flour. New 

1 In 1777 Vermont forbade the slavery of men and women. In 1780 Penn- 
sylvania passed a gradual abolition act. Massachusetts by her constitution 
declared "All men are born free and equal," which her courts held prohibited 
slavery. New Hampshire in her constitution made a similar declaration with a 
like result. In 1784 Connecticut and Rhode Island adopted gradual abolition 
laws, providing that children born of a slave parent after a certain date should 
be free when they reached a certain age, and that their children were never to 
be slaves. These were states where slaves had never been much in demand, 
and where the industries of the people did not depend on slave labor. 



220 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



York had lost much of her fur trade because of the British 
control of the frontier posts ; but her exports of flour, grain» 
lumber, leather, and Avhat not, in 1791, were valued at nearly 
•$3,000,000. The people of Pennsylvania made lumber, linen, 
flour, paper, iron; built ships; carried on a prosperous com- 
merce with foreign lands and a good fur trade with the Indians. 
In Maryland and Virginia the staple crop was still tobacco, 
but they also produced much grain and flour. North Carolina 




Trading canoe. 



produced tar, pitch, resin, turpentine, and lumber. Some rice 
and tobacco were raised. Great herds of cattle and hogs ran 
wild. In South Carolina rice was the most important crop. 
Indigo, once an important product, had declined since the 
Revolution, and cotton was only just beginning to be grown 
for export. From the back country came tar, pitch, turpen- 
tine, and beaver, deer, and bear skins for export. 

The Fur Trade. — The region of the Great Lakes, where the 
British still held the forts on the American side of the bound- 
ary, was the chief seat of the fur trade. Goods for Indian 



OUR COUNTRY IN 1789 221 

use were brought from England to Montreal and Quebec, and 
carried in canoes to Oswego, Niagara, Detroit, Mackinaw, 
Sault Ste. Marie (map, p. 194), and thence scattered over the 
Northwest. 1 

1 The departure of a fleet of canoes from Quebec or Montreal was a fine sight. 
The trading canoe of baric was forty-five feet long, and carried four tons of 
goods. The crew of eigiit men, with their hats gaudy with plumes and tinsel, 
their brilliant handkerchiefs tied around their throats, their bright-colored shirts, 
flaming belts, and gayly worked moccasins, formed a picture that can not be 
described. When the axes, powder, shot, dry goods, and provisions were 
packed in the canoes, when each voyager had hung his votive offering in the 
chapel of his patron saint, a boatman of experience stepped into the bow and 
another into the stern of each canoe, the crew took places between them, and 
at the word the fleet glided up the St. Lawrence on its way to the Ottawa, 
and thence on to Sault Ste. Marie, to Grand Portage (near the northeast corner 
of what is now Minnesota), or to Mackinaw. 

SUMMARY 

1. In 1789 the states had governments less democratic than at present ; 
in general only property owners could vote and hold office. 

2. The states were all in debt, and Congress had incurred besides a 
large national debt. 

3. The population was less than 4,000,000, mostly on the Atlantic 
seaboard. 

4. Cities were few and small, without street cars, pavements, water 
works, gas or electric lights, public libraries or museums, letter carriers, or 
paid firemen. Everywhere many of the common conveniences of mod- 
ern life were unknown. 

5. Travel was slow and tiresome, because there were no railroads, 
steamboats, or automobiles. 

6. Occupations were far fewer than now, wages lower, and hours of 
labor longer. Slavery had been abolished, or was being gradually stojjped, 
in New England and Pennsylvania, but existed in all the other states; 
and in the South nearly all the labor was done by slaves. 

7. New Englanders were engaged in farming, fishing, lumbering, and 
commerce; the Middle States produced much wheat and flour, and also 
lumber; the South chiefly tobacco, rice, and tar, pitch, and turpentine. 



CHAPTER XVIII 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 

First Acts of Congress. — During Washington's first term 
of office as President (1789-93), the time of Congress was 
hirgely taken up with the passage of laws necessary to put the 

new government in opera- 
tion, and to carry out the 
plan of the Constitution. 

Departments of State, 
Treasury, and War were es- 
tablished ; a Supreme Court 
was organized with a Chief 
Justice ^ and five associates ; 
three Circuits (one for each 
of the three groups of states. 
Eastern, Middle, and South- 
ern) and thirteen District 
Courts (one for each state) 
were created, and provision 
was made for all the machin- 
ery of justice ; and twelve 
amendments to the Constitution were sent out to the states, 
of which ten were ratified by the requisite number of states 
and became a part of the Constitution. ^ 

1 Washington appointed John Jay the first Chief Justice, and gave the newly 
created secretaryships of State, Treasury, and War to Thomas Jetferson, Alex- 
ander Hamilton, and Henry Knox respectively. These men were intended to be 
heads of departments ; but Washington soon began to consult them and the 
Attorney General on matters of state and thus made them also a body of ad- 
visers known as " the Cabinet." All the Secretaries and the Postmaster General 
and the Attorney General are now members of the Cabinet. 

2 These ten amendments form a sort of " bill of rights," and were intended 
to remove objections to the Constitution by those who feared that the national 
government might encroach on the liberties of the people. 

222 




Desk used by Washington while President. 

In the possession of the Pennsylvania Historical 
Society. 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 223 

At the second session of Congress provision was made, in 
the Funding Measure, for the assumption of the Continental and 
state debts incurred during the war for independence.^ The 
District of Columbia as the permanent seat of government was 
located on the banks of the Potomac,^ and the temporary seat 
of government was moved from New York to Philadelphia, 
there to remain for ten years. 

New States. — Tlie states of North Carolina and Rhode 
Island, having at last ratified the Constitution, sent representa- 
tives and senators to share in the work of Congress during 
this session. 

The quarrel between New York and A^ermont having been 
settled, Vermont was admitted in 1791; and Virginia having 
given her consent, the people of Kentucky were authorized to 
form a state constitution, and Kentucky entered the Union 
in 1792.3 

The National Bank and the Currency. — The funding of the 
debt (proposed by Hamilton) was the first great financial meas- 
ure adopted by Congress.'* The second (1791) was the charter of 

1 For the different kinds of debt, see p. 211. The Continental money was 
funded at SI in government stocli for f 100 in the paper money; but the other 
forms of debt were assumed by the government at their face value. All told, 
— state debts, foreign debt, loan-office certificates, etc., — these obligations 
amounted to about 875.000.000. To pay so large a sum in ca.sh was impossible, 
so Congress ordered interest-bearing stock to be given in exchange for evidence 
of debt. 

^ As first laid out, the District of Columbia was a S(]uare ten miles on a 
side, and was partly in Virginia and partly in Maryland. But the piece in Vir- 
ginia many years later (1846) was given back to that state. 

^ After these two states were admitted each was given a star and a stripe on 
the national flag. Until 1818 our flag thus had fifteen stars and fifteen stripes, 
no further change being made as new states were admitted. In 1818 two stripes 
were taken off, the number of stars was made the same as the number of states, 
and since then each new state has been represented by a new star. 

* Alexander Hamilton was born in 1757 on the island of Nevis, one of the 
British West Indies. He was sent to New York to be educated, and entered 
King's College (now Columbia University). There he became an ardent patriot, 
"wrote pamphlets in defense of the first Congress, and addressed a public meeting 
when but seventeen. He was captain of an artillery company in 1776, one of 
Washington's aids in 1777-81, distinguished himself at Yorktowu, and (in 1782) 
"Went to Congress. He was a man of energy, enthusiasm, and high ideals, was 

MCM. BRIEF 14 



224 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



the Bank of the United States with power to establish branches in 
the states and to issue bank notes to be used as money. The 

third (1792) was the law pro- 
viding for a national coinage 
and authorizing the establish- 
ment of a United States mint 
for making the coin.^ It was 
ordered that whoever would 
bring gold or silver to the 
mint should receive for it the 
same weight of coins. This 
was free coinage of gold and 
silver, and made our stand- 
ard of money bimetaUic, or of 
two metals ; for a debtor 
could choose which kind of 
money he would pay. 

Hamiltons Tomb, New York city. rj.^^ Revenue LawS. — 

Other financial measures of Washington's first term were the 
tariff law, which levied duties on imported goods, wares, and 
merchandise, the excise or whisky tax, and the law fixing rates 
of postage on letters.^ 




possessed of a singular genius for finance, and believed in a vigorous national 
government. As Secretary of the Treasury, Hamilton proposed not only the 
funding and assumption plans, but the national bank and the mint. 

1 The coins were to be the eagle or ten-dollar piece, half eagle, and quarter 
eagle of gold ; the dollar, half, quarter, dime, and half dime of silver ; and the 
cent and half cent of copper. The mint was established at once at Philadelphia, 
and the first copper coin was struck in 1793. But coinage was a slow process, 
and many years passed before foreign coins ceased to circulate. The accounts 
of Congress were always kept in dollars and cents. But the states and the 
people used pounds, shillings, pence, and Spanish dollars, and it was several 
years before the states, by law, required their officers to levy taxes and keep 
accounts in dollars and cents (Virginia in 1792, Rhode Island and Massa- 
chusetts in 1795, New York and Vermont in 1797, New Jersey in 1799). 

2 A single letter in those days was one written on a single sheet of paper, 
large or small, and the postage on it was 6 cents for any distance under 30 
miles, 8 cents from 30 to 60, 10 cents from 60 to 100, and so on to 450 miles, 
above which the rate was 25 cents. In all our country there were but 75 post 
offices, and the revenue derived from them was about $100,000 a year. 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 



225 



The Rise of Parties. — As to the justice and wisdom of tlie 
acts of Congress the people were divided in their opinions. 
Those who approved and supported the administration were 
called Federalists, and had for leaders Washington, John 
Adams, Hamilton, Robert Morris, John Jay, and Rnfiis King; 
those who opposed the administi'ation were the Anti-Federal- 
ists, or Repnblicans, whose great leaders were Jefferson, Madi- 
son, Monroe, Cierrv, Gallatin, and Randolph. 

The Rei)ublicans had op[)()sed the funding and assumption 
measures, the national bank, and the excise. They complained 
that the national debt was too large, that the salaries of the 
President, Congressmen, and officials were too high, and that 
the taxes were too heavy ; and they accused tlie Federalists of 
a fondness for monarchy and aristocracy. 

Washington opened each session of Congress with a speech 
just as the king opened Parliament, and each branch of Congress 
presented an answer just as the Lords and Commons did to the 
king. Nobody could go to the President's reception without a 
card of invitation. The judges of the Su]3reme Court wore 
gowns as did Fnglish judges. The Senate held its daily ses- 




Lady Washington's reception. From an oM prijit. 



226 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

sions in secret, and shut out reporters and the people. All 
this the Anti-Federalists held to be unrepublican. 

The Election of 1792. — When the time came, in 1792, to elect 
a successor to Washington, there were tlius two political parties. 
Both parties supported Washington for President ; but the 
Republicans tried hard, though in vain, to defeat Adams for 
Vice President. 

Opposition to the Government by no means ended with the 
formation of parties and votes at the polls. The Assembly of 
Virginia condemned the assumption of the state debts. North 
Carolina denounced assumption and the excise law. In Mary- 
land a resolution declaring assumption dangerous to the rights 
of tlie states was lost by the casting vote of the Speaker. The 
right of Congress to tax pleasure carriages was tested in the 
Supreme Court, which declared the tax constitutional. When 
that court decided (1793) that a citizen of one state might sue 
another state, Virginia, Connecticut, and Massachusetts called 
for a constitutional amendment to prevent this, and the Eleventh 
Amendment was proposed by Congress (1794) and declared in 
force in 1798. The tax on whisky caused an insurrection in 
Pennsylvania. 

The Whisky Insurrection. — The farmers around Pittsburg 
were largely engaged in distilling whisky, refused to pay the 
tax, and drove off the collectors. Congress thereupon (1791) 
enacted a law to enforce the collection, but when the marshal 
arrested some of the offenders, the people rose, drove him 
away, and by force of arms prevented the execution of the law. 
Washington then called for troops from Pennsylvania, New 
Jersey, Maryland, and Virginia, and these marching across the 
state by a mere show of force brought the people to obedience. 
Leaders of the insurrection were arrested, tried, and convicted 
of treason, but were pardoned by Washington.^ 

The Indian War. — Still farther west, meantime, a great 
battle had been fought with the Indians. The succession of 
boats loaded with emigrants floating down the Ohio, and the 
1 Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. II, pp. 189-204. 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 



227 



arrivals of settlers north of the river at Marietta, Gallipolis, 
and Cincinnati, had greatly excited the Indians. The coming of 
the whites meant the destruction of game and of fur-bearing 
animals, and the pushing westward of the Indians. This the 
red men determined to resist, and did so by attacking boats and 
killing emigrants, and in January, 1790, they marched down on 
tlie settlement called Big Bottom (northwest of Marietta) and 
swept it from the face of the earth. 

Washington sent fifteen hundred troops from Kentucky 
and Pennsylvania against the Indians in the autumn of 1790. 
Led by Colonel Harmar, tlie troops burned some Indian supplies 
and villages, but accomplished nothing save to enrage the 
Indians yet more. 
Washington there- 
upon put General St. 
Clair in command, 
and in the autumn of 
1791St.Clairsetoffto 
build a chain of forts 
from Cincinnati to 
Lake Michigan ; but 
the Indians surprised 
him and cut his army 
to pieces. 

Anthony Wayne 
Avas next placed in 
command, and two Territory ceded by the treaty of Greenvilie. 

years were spent in careful preparation before he began his 
march across what is now the state of Ohio. At the Falls of 
the Maumee (August, 179-1) he met and beat the Indians so 
soundly that a year later, by the treaty of Greenville, a last- 
ing peace was made with the ten great nations of the North- 
west. 

Neutrality. — Washington's second term of office was a 
stormy time in foreign as well as in domestic affairs. In 
February, 1793, the French Republic declared war on Great 




228 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

Britain, and so brought up the question, Which side shall the 
United States take ? Washington said neitlier side, and issued 
a proclamation of neutrality, warning the people not to commit 
hostile acts in favor of either Great Britain or France. The 
Republicans (and many who were Federalists) grew angry at this 




Washington's coach. 

and roundly abused the President. France, they said, is an old 
friend ; Great Britain, our old enemy. France helped win inde- 
pendence and loaned us money and sent us troops and ships ; 
Great Britain attempted to enslave us. We were bound to 
France by a treaty of alliance and a treaty of commerce; 
we were bound to Great Britain by no treaty of any kind. 
To be neutral, then, was to be ungrateful to France. ^ As a 
result tlie Federalists were called the British party, and they, 
in turn, called the Republicans the French party or Democrats. 
Great Britain seizes our Ships. — To preserve neutralit}^ un- 
der such conditions would have been hard enough, but Great 
Britain made it harder still by seizing American merchant 
ships that were carrying lumber, fish, flour, and provisions to 
the French West Indies.^ 

1 Good feeling toward France led the Republicans to some funny extremes. 
To address a person as Sir, Mr., Mrs. , or Miss was unrepublican. You should 
say, as in France, Citizen Jones, or Citess Smith. Tall poles with a red liberty 
cap on top were erected in every town where there were Republicans ; civic 
feasts were held ; and July 14 (the anniversary of the day the Bastile of Paris 
fell in 1789) was duly celebrated. 

2 When Great Britain drove French ships from the sea, France threw open 
the trade with the French West Indies to other ships. But Great Britain had 
laid down a rule that no neutral could have in time of war a trade with her 
enemy it did not have in time of peace. Our merchants fell under the ban of 
Great Britain for this reason. 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 229 

Our merchants at once appealed to Congress for aid, and the 
Republicans attempted to retaliate on Great Britain in a way 
that might have brought on war. In this they failed, but Con- 
gress laid an embargo for a short time, preventing all our ves- 
sels from sailing to foreign ports ; and money was voted to 
build fortifications at the seaports from Maine to Georgia, 
and for building arsenals at Springfield (Mass.) and Carlisle 
(Pa.), and for constructing six frigates. ^ 

Washington did not wish war, and with the approval of the 
Senate sent Chief-Justice John Jay to London to make a 
treaty of friendship and commerce with Great Britain. 

Jay's Treaty, when ratified (1795), was far from what was 
desired. But it provided for the delivery of the posts on our 
northern frontier, its other provisions were the best that could 
be had, and it insured peace. For this reason among others 
the treaty gave great offense to tlie Republicans, who wanted 
the United States to quarrel with Great Britain and take 
sides with France. They denounced it from one end of the 
country to the other, burned copies of it at mass meetings, and 
hanged Jay in effigy. For the same reason, also, France took 
deep offense. 

Treaty with Spain. — Our treaty with Great Britain was fol- 
lowed by one with Spain, by which the vexed question of the 
Mississippi was put at rest. Spain agreed to withdraw her 
troops from all her posts north of the parallel of 31 degrees. 
She also agreed that New Orleans should be a port of deposit. 
This was of great advantage to the growing West, for the 
farmers, thereafter, could float their bacon, flour, lumber, etc. 

1 These frigates were not built. They were really intended for use against 
the Barbary powers (Morocco, Tunis, Algiers, Tripoli) that were plundering our 
Mediterranean commerce. These nations of northern Africa had long been ac- 
customed to prey upon European ships and sell the crews into slavery. To obtain 
protection against such treatment the nations of southern Europe paid these 
pirates an annual tribute. Some of our ships and sailors were captured, and as 
we had no navy with which to protect our commerce, a treaty was made 
with Algiers (1795) which bound us to pay a yearly tribute of "twelve thou- 
sand Algerine sequins in maritime stores." We shall see what came of this 
a few years later. 



230 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



down the Ohio and the Mississippi to New Orleans and there 
sell it for export to the West Indies or Europe. 

The Election of 1796. — Washington, who had twice been 
elected President, now declined to serve a third time, and in 
September, 1796, announced his determination by publishing 
in a newspaper what is called his Farewell Address.^ There 







jZJ^^.^ 



0-\-i^ /C a r t --L^ ^ — -^^-^ y^i^tC^K/C^tf^ Oii^t'*.^'^^---'^^ •^J'^^^J'^^^t 



^Za^ 



I 



|.^i;^L<>Zkj c^'^^aJ^-, 





Last page of the autograph copy of Washington's Farewell Address. 

In the Lenox Library, New Y(irk. 

was no such thing as a national party convention in those days, 
or for many years to come. The Federalists, however, by 
common consent, selected John Adams as their candidate for 
President, and most of them supported Thomas Pinckney for 

1 In the FarfweU Adch'ess, besides giving notice of his retirement, 
"Washington argued at lengtli against sectional jealousy and party spirit, and 
urged the promotion of institutions "for the general diffusion of knowledge." 
He disapproved of large standing armies ("overgrown military establish- 
ments"), and earnestly declared that our true policy is " to steer clear of 
permanent alliances with any portion of the foreign world," especially Euro- 
pean nations. 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 231 

Vice President. The Republicans put forward Thomas Jeffer- 
son and Aaron Burr and others. The French minister to our 
country used his influence to help the Republican candidates ; ^ 
but when the election was over, it turned out that Adams ^ 
was chosen President and Jefferson Vice President. Pinckney, 
the Fedei-alist candidate for Vice President, was defeated be- 
cause he failed to receive the votes of all the Federalist elec- 
tor s.^ 

The X. Y. Z. Affair. — The French Directory, a body of five 
men that governed the French RepuVjlic, now refused to receive 
a minister whom Washington had just sent to that country 
(Charles C. Pinckney). This deliberate affront to the United 
States was denounced by Adams in his first message to Con- 
gress ; but he sent to Paris a special commission composed of 
two Federalists and one Republican,'* in an earnest effort to 

1 He called on all French citizens living in tlie United States to wear on 
their hats the French tricolor (red, white, and blue) cockade, and of course all 
the Republican friends of France did the same and made it their party badge. 
He next published in the newspapers a long letter in which he said, in sub- 
stance, that unless the United States changed its policy toward France it might 
expect trouble. This meant that unless a Republican President (.Jefferson) was 
elected, there might be war between the two countries. 

- John Adams was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, in 1735. He gradu- 
ated from Harvard College, studied law, and in 1770 was one of the lawyers 
who defended tlie soldiers that were tried for nuirder in connection with the 
famous "Boston Massacre." He was sent to the First and Second Continental 
Congresses, and was a member of the committee appointed to frame the 
Declaration of Independence, and of the committee to arrange treaties with 
foreign powers. He was for a time associated with Franklin in the ministry to 
France ; in 1780 went as minister to Holland ; and in 1783 was one of the 
signers of the treaty of peace with Great Britain. In 1785 he was appointed 
the first United States minister to Great Britain ; and in 1789-97 was Vice 
President. 

3 Adams received 71 votes, Jeffei'son 68, Pinckney 59, Burr 30, and nine 
other men also received votes. Under the original Constitution the electors 
did not vote separately for President and Vice President. Each cast one bal- 
lot with two names on it ; the man receiving the most votes (if a majority of the 
number of electors) was elected President, and the man receiving the next high- 
est number was elected Vice President. Thus it happened that while the 
Federalists elected the President, the Republicans elected the Vice President. 

* The Federalists were John Marshall and Charles C. Pinckney. Elbridge 
Gerry was the Republican member. 



232 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

keep the peace. These commissioners Avere visited by three 
agents of the Directory, who told them that before a new treaty 
could be made they must give a present of $50,000 to each 
Director, apologize for Adams's denunciation of France, and 
loan a large sum (practically pay tribute money) to France. 

In reporting this affair to Congress the Secretary of State 
concealed the names of the French agents and called them Mr. 
X, Mr. Y, and Mr. Z. This gave the affair the name of the 
X. Y. Z. Mission. 

Preparation for War with France (1798). — The reading of 
the dispatches in Congress caused a great change in feeling. 
The country had been insulted, and Congress, forgetting 
politics, made preparations for war. An army was raised 
and Washington made lieutenant general. The Navy Depart- 
ment was created and the first Secretary of the Navy ap- 
pointed. Ships were built, purchased, and given to the govern- 
ment; and with the cry, "Millions for defense, not a cent for 
tribute," the people offered their services to the President, and 
labored without pay in the erection of forts along the seaboard. 
Then was written by Joseph Hopkinson, of Philadelphia, and 
sung for the first time, our national song Hail, Columbia ! ^ 

The Alien and Sedition Acts. — In preparing for war. Congress 
had acted wisely. ; But the Federalists, whom the trouble with 
France had placed in control of Congress, also passed the 
Alien and Sedition Acts, which aroused bitter opposition. 

The Alien Acts were (1) a law requiring aliens, or 
foreigners, to live in our country fourteen years before they 
could be naturalized and become citizens ; (2) a law giving 
the President power, for the next two j^ears, to send out of the 
country any alien he thought to be dangerous to the peace of 
the United States; and (3) the Alien Enemies Act for the expul- 
sion, in time of war, of the subjects of the hostile government. 

The Sedition Act provided for the punishment of persons 
who acted, spoke, or wrote in a seditious manner, that is, opposed 

1 Read the account of the popular excitement in McMaster's History of the 
People of the U. S., Vol. II, pp. 37(5-387. 



THE NEW GOVERNMENT 



233 



the execution of any law of the United States, or wrote, printed, 
or uttered anything with intent to defame the government of 
the United States or any of its officials. 

Adams did not use the power given him by the second 
Alien Act ; but the Sedition Act was rigorously enforced with 
fines and imprisonment. Such interference with the liberty 
of the press cost Adams much of his poinilarity. 

The Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions. — The Republi- 
cans were greatly excited by the Alien and Sedition Acts, and 
at the suggestion of Jefferson resolutions condemning them as 
unconstitutional ^ and hence " utterly void and of no force " 
were passed by the legislatures of Kentucky and Virginia. 

Seven states answered with resolutions declaring the acts 
constitutional. Whereupon, in the following year (1799), 
Kentucky declared that when a state thought a law of Con- 
gress unconstitutional, that state might veto or nullify it, that 
is, forbid its citizens to 
obey it. This doctrine of 
nullification, as we shall 
see, was later of serious 
importance. 

The Naval War with 
France. — Meantime, the 
little navy which had been ^^ 
so hastily prepared was 
sent to scour the seas ' ^ " ^ ^ 

11 II 1 TTT "^^^ Enterprise. 

around the French West 

Indies, and in a few months won many victories. ^ The publi- 




^ That is, condemning tliem on the ground that the Constitution did not give 
Congress power to make such laws. The Virginia and Kentucky Resohitions 
are printed in full in MacDonald's Select Documents, 1776-1861, pp. 14!)-160. 

2 One squadron that captured a number of vessels was under the command 
of Captain John Barry. Another squadron under Captain Truxtun captured 
sixty French privateers. The Constelldtion took the French frigate Insnrgente 
and beat the Vengeance, which escaped ; the Enterprise captured eight priva- 
teers and recaptured four American merchantmen ; and the Boston captured 
the Berceau. During the war eighty-four armed French vessels were taken by 
our navy. 



234 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



cation of the X. Y. Z. letters created almost as much in- 
dignation in France as in our country, and forced the Directory 
to send word that if other commissioners came, they would be 
received. Adams thereupon appointed three ; but when they 
reached France the Directory had fallen from power, Napoleon 
was riding-, and with him a new treaty was concluded in 1800. 
The Election of 1800. — The cost of this war made new 
taxes necessary, and these, coupled with the Alien and Sedition 
Acts, did much to bring about the defeat of the Federalists. 

Their candidates for tlie 
presidency and vice presi- 
dency were John Adams 
and Charles C. Pinckney. 
The Republicans nomina- 
ted Jefferson 1 and Aaron 
Burr, and won. Unfortu- 
nately Jefferson and Burr 
each received the same 
number of votes, so it 
became the duty of the 
House of Representatives 
to determine which should 
be President. When the 
Thomas Jefferson. House elects a President, 

each state, no matter how many representatives it may have, 
casts one vote. There were then sixteen states^ in the Union. 

1 Thomas Jefferson was born on a Virginia plantation April 13, 1743, at- 
tended William and Mary College, studied law, and in 17(59 became a mem- 
ber of the Virginia House of Burgesses. He rose into notice as a defender 
of colonial riglits, was sent to the Second Continental Congress, and in 177G 
wrote the Declaration of Independence. Between 1776 and 1789 he was a 
member of the Virginia legislature, governor of Virginia, member of Congress 
(1783-1784), and minister to France (1784-1789). He was a strict construc- 
tionist of the Constitution ; he wrote the original draft of the Kentucky Keso- 
lutions of 1798, had great faith in the ability of the people to govern themselves, 
and dreaded the growth of great cities and the extension of the powers of the 
Supreme Court. He and John Adams died the same day, July 4, 1826, the fiftieth 
anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence. 

" Tennessee, the sixteenth, was admitted in 1796. 




THE NEW GOVERNMENT 235 

The votes of nine, therefore, were necessary to elect. But the 
Federalists held the votes of six, and as the representatives of 
two more were equally divided, the Federalists thought they 
could say who should be President, and tried hard to elect Burr. 
Finally some of them yielded and allowed the Republicans to 
make Jefferson President, thus leaving Burr to be Vice Presi- 
dent. 

President Jefferson. — The inauguration took place on ^[arch 
4, 1801, at Washington, to which city the government was re- 
moved from Philadelphia in the summer of 1800.^ Everywhere 
the day was celebrated with l)ell ringing, cannonading, dinners, 
and parades. The people had triumphed; "the Man of the 
People" was President. Monarchy, aristocracy, and Feder- 
alism it was said, had received a deathblow. 

1 A story is current that on inauguration day Jefferson rode unattended to 
the Capitol and tied his horse to the fence befoi'e entering the Senate Cham- 
ber and taking tlie oath of office. The story was invented by an P^nglish 
traveler and is pure fiction. The President walked to the Capitol attended by 
niihtiaand the crowd of supporters who came to witness tlie end of the conte.sted 
election, and was .saluted by the guns of a company of artillery as he entered the 
Senate Chamber and again as he came out. 

SUMMARY 

1. The first Congress under the Constitution passed laws establishing 
the executive departments and the United States coui-ts, and other laws 
necessary to put the new government in ojieration. 

2. The debts incurred during the Revolution were assumed and funded, 
and the permanent seat of government (after 1800) was located on the 
Potomac. 

3. Import and excise duties were laid, a national bank was chartered, 
and a mint was established for coining United States money. 

4. In Washington's second term as President (1793-97) there was war 
between Great Britain and France, and it was with difficulty that our gov- 
ernment succeeded in remaining neutral. 

5. Treaties were made with Great Britain and Spain, whei'eby these 
powers withdrew from thejwsts they held in our country, the right of deposit 
at New Orleans was secured, and peace w^as preserved. 

6. A five years' Indian war in the Northwest Territory was ended by 
Wayne's victory (1794) and the treaty of Greenville (1795). 



236 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



7. The people of western Pennsylvania resisted the excise tax on 
whisky, but their insurrection was easily suppressed by a force of militia. 

8. Differences on questions of domestic and foreign policy had resulted 
in the growth of the Federalist and Republican parties, but party organiza- 
tion was imperfect. In 1796 Adams (Federalist) was elected President, and 
Jefferson (Republican) Vice President. 

9. The British treaty and the election of Adams gave offense to the 
French government, which made insulting demands upon our commissioners 
sent to that country. A brief naval war in the French West Indies was 
ended by a treaty made by a new French government in 1800. 

10. The passage of the Alien and Sedition Acts brought out protests 
against them in what are called the Virginia and Kentucky Resolutions of 
1798-99, one of which claimed the right of a state to nullify an act of Con- 
gress which it deemed unconstitutional. 

11. In the next presidential election (1800) the Republicans were suc- 
cessful; but as Jeffei'son and Burr had each the same number of votes, the 
House of Representatives had to decide which should be President and 
which Vice President. After a long contest Jefferson was given the higher 
office, as the Republicans had wished. 




A silhouette, a kind of portrait often made before 1840. 

In the possession of the Concord Antiquarian Society. 



CHAPTER XIX 

GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY, 1789-1805 

Prosperity. — Twelve years had now elapsed since the meet- 
ing at New York of the first Congress under the Constitution, 
and they had been years of great prosperity. 

When Washington took the oath of office, each state 
regulated its trade with foreign countries and with its neigh- 
bors in its own way, and issued its own paper money, which 
it made legal tender. Agriculture was in a primitive stage, 
very little cotton was grown, mining was but little practiced, 
manufacture had not passed the household stage, trans- 
portation was slow and costly, and in all the states but three 
banks had been chartered.^ 

With the establishment of a strong and vigorous govern- 
ment under the new Constitution, and the passage of the much- 
needed laws we have mentioned, these conditions began to 
pass away. Now that the people had a government that could 
raise revenue, pay its debts, regulate trade with foreign na- 
tions and between the states, enforce its laws, and provide a 
uniform currency, confidence returned. Men felt safe to en- 
gage in business, and as a consequence trade and commerce 
revived, and money long unused was brought out and in- 
vested. Banks were incorporated and their stock quickly 
purcliased Manufacturing companies were organized and 
mills and factories started ; a score of canals were planned 
and the building of several was begun ; ^ turnpike companies 

iRead "Town and Country Life in 1800," Cliap. xii in McMaster's His- 
iory of the People of the U. S., Vol. II. 

2 The Middlesex from Boston to Lowell ; the Dismal Swamp in Virginia ; 
the Santee in South Carolina. 

237 



238 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



were chartered ; lotteries ^ were authorized to raise money 
for all sorts of public improvements, • — schools, churches, 
wharves, factories, and bridges ; and speculation in stock and 
Western land l)eeame a rage. 

New Industries. — It was during the decade 1790-1800 that 
Slater built the first mill for working 
cotton yarn ; ^ that Eli Terry began the 
manufacture of clocks as a business ; 
tliat sewing thread was first made in our 
country (at Pawtucket, R. I.) ; that 
Jacob Perkins began to make nails by 
machine ; that the first broom was made 
from broom corn ; that the first carpet 
mill and the first cotton mill were 
started ; that Eli Whitney invented the 
cotton gin ; and that the first steamboat 
went up and down the Delaware. 

The Cotton Gin. —Before 1790 the 
products of the states south of Virginia 
A Terry clock. ^^^^"^ ^^^■' pi^ch, lumber, rice, and indigo. 

But the destruction of the indigo plants 
b}" insects year after year suggested the cultivation of some 




1 In those days lotteries for public purposes were not thought wrong. The 
Continental Congress and many state legislatures used them to raise revenue. 
Congress authorized one to secure money with which to improve Washington 
city. Faneuil Hall in Boston and Independence Hall in Philadelphia were 
aided by lotteries. Private lotteries had been forbidden by many of the colo- 
nies. But the states continued to authorize lotteries for public purposes till 
after 1830, when one by one they forbade all lotteries. 

2 Parliament in 1774 forbade anyone to take away from England any draw- 
ing or model of any machine used in the manufacture of cotton goods. No such 
machines were allowed in our country in colonial times. In 1787, however, the 
Massachusetts legislature voted six tickets in the State Land Lottei-y to two 
Scotchmen named Burr to help them build a spinning jenny. About the same 
time £200 was given to a man named Somers to help him construct a machine. 
The models thus built were put in the Statehouse at Boston for anybody to 
copy who wished, and mills were soon started at Worcester, Beverly, and Provi- 
dence. But it was not till 1790, when Samuel Slater came to America, that the 
great English machines were introduced. Slater was familiar with them and 
made his from memory. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY, 1789-1805 



239 




other crop, and cotton was tried. 

To clean it of its seeds by hand 

was slow and costly, and to remove 

the dithculty Eli Whitney of Massa- 
chusetts, then a young' man living 

in Georgia, invented a machine 

called the cotton gin.^ Then the 

cultivation of cotton became mosi 

profitable, and the new industry 

spread rapidly in the South. 

The Steamboat. — The idea of 

driving boats through water by 

machinery moved by steam was an 

old one. Several men had made 

such experiments in our country before 1790. ^ But in that 

year John Fitch put a 
steamboat on the Del- 
aware and during four 
months ran it regu- 
larly from Philadelphia 
to Trenton. He was 
ahead of his time and 
for lack of support was 
n, . , X T. . .., . u . forced to give up tlie en- 

Model of Fitch's steamboat. . ° ^ 

In the National Museum, Wasbiiifftoii. tCrpriSC. 



Model of Whitney's cotton gin. 

In tile Xational .Museum, Wa.sliiii;;ton. 




1 Eli Whitney was born in 17(i5, and while still a lad showed great skill in 
making and handling tools. After graduating from Yale College, he went to 
reside in the family of General Greene, who had been given a plantation by 
Georgia. While he was making the first cotton gin, planters came long dis- 
tances to see it, and before it was fini-shed and patented some one broke into 
the building where it was and stole it. In 1794 he received a patent, but he 
was unable to enforce his rights. After a few years, South Carolina bought his 
right for that state, and North Carolina levied a tax on cotton gins for his 
benefit. But the sum he received was very small. 

2 James Rumsey, as early as 1785, had experimented with a steamboat on 
the Potomac, and about the same time .John Fitch built one in Pennsylvania, 
and succeeded so well that in 1786 and in 1787 one of his boats made trial trips 
on the Delaware. Later in 1787 Rumsey ran a steamboat on the Potomac at 
the rate of fottr miles an hour. 

MfM. BRIEF 15 



240 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

The New West. — In the western country ten years had 
wrought a great change. Good times in the commercial states 
and the Indian war in the West had done much to keep popula- 
tion out of the Northwest Territory from 1790 to 1795. But 
from the South population had moved steadily over the moun- 
tains into the region south of the Ohio River. The new state 
of Kentucky (admitted in 1792) grew rapidly in population. 

North Carolina, after ratifying the Constitution, again 
ceded her Western territory, and out of this and the narrow 
strip ceded by South Carolina, Congress (1790) made the 
" Territory of the United States south of the river Ohio." But 
population came in such numbers that in 1796 the North Caro- 
lina cession was admitted as the state of Tennessee. 

In the far South, after Spain accepted the boundary of 31°, 
Congress established the territory of Mississippi (1798), con- 
sisting of most of the soutliern half of the present states of 
Mississippi and Alabama. Four years later Georgia accepted 
her present boundaries, and the territory of Mississippi was 
then enlarged so as to include all the Western lands ceded by 
South Carolina and Georgia (map, p. 212). 

Cleveland. — Jay's treaty, by providing for the surrender of 
the forts along the Great Lakes, opened that region to settle- 
ment, and in 1796 Moses Cleaveland led a New England colony 
across New York and on the shore of Lake Erie laid out the 
town which now bears his name. Others followed, and by 1800 
there were thirty-two settlements in the Connecticut Reserve. 

Detroit. — The chief town of the Northwest was Detroit. 
Wayne, who saw it in 1796, described it as a crowded mass of one- 
and two-story buildings separated by streets so narrow that two 
wagons could scarcely pass. Around the town was a stockade 
of high pickets with bastions and cannon at proper distances, 
and within the stockade "a kind of citadel." The only en- 
trances were through two gates defended by blockhouses at 
either end of a street along the river. Every night from 
sunset to sunrise the gates were shut, and during this time 
no Indian was allowed to remain in the town. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY, 1789-1805 



241 



Indiana Territory. — After Wayne's treaty with the Indians, 
five years brought so many people into the Northwest Territory 
that in 1800 the western part was cut oiT and made the separate 
territory of Indiana. ^ Not 6,000 white people then lived in all 
its vast area. 

The census of 1800 showed that more than 5,000,000 peo- 
ple then dwelt in our country; of these, nearly 400,000 were 
in the five Western states and territories — Kentucky, Ten- 
nessee, Northwest, Indiana, Mississippi. 

Public Land on Credit. — The same year (1800) in which 
Congress created the territory of Indiana, it changed the man- 
ner of selling the pulj- 




Settled area in 1790 V/ — v 

[Dots indicate regions settled^ 
'between 1790 and 1810 




Settled area in 1810. 



lie lands. Hitherto 
the buyer had been 
obliged to pay cash. 
After 1800 he might 
buy on credit, paying 
one quarter annually. 
The effect of this was 
to bring settlers into 
the West in such num- 
bers that the state 
of Ohio was admitted 
in 1803, and the territory of Michigan formed in 1805. ^ 

France acquires Louisiana. — For yet another reason the year 
1800 is a memorable one in our history. When the French 
Minister of Foreign Affairs heard that Spain (in 1795) had 
agreed that 31° north latitude should be the dividing line be- 
tween us and West Florida, he became alarmed. He feared 

1 Not the Indiana of to-day, but the great region inchiding what is now 
Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, and half of Michigan and Minnesota. The settle- 
ments were Mackinaw, Green Bay, Prairie du Chien, Cahokia, Belle Fontaine, 
L'Aigle, Ka.skaskia, Prairie du Rocher, Fort Massac, and Vincennes. Notice 
that most of these names are of French origin. The governor was William H. 
Harrison, afterward a President. 

2 In 1809 Illinois territory was created from the western part of Indiana 
territory. When the census was taken in 1810, nearly 1,000,000 people were 
living west of the Appalachians. 




242 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY, 1789-1805 



243 



that onr next step would be to acquire West Florida, and per- 
haps the country west of the Mississippi. To prevent this he 
asked Spain to give Louisiana back to France as France had 
given it to Spain in 11&2 (see page 143); France would then 
occui)y and hold it forever. Spain refused ; but soon after 
Nai)oleon came into power the request was renewed in so 
tempting a form that Spain jaelded, and by a secret treaty 
returned Louisiana to France in 1800. 

The Mississippi Closed to our Commerce. — The treaty for a 
while was kept secret ; but when it became known that Napoleon 
was about to send an army 
to take possession of Louisi- 
ana, a Spanish official at 
New Orleans took away the 
"right of deposit" at that 
city and so prevented our 
citizens from sending their 
produce out of the ^Mississippi 
River. This was a violation 
of the treaty with Spain, 
and the settlers in the val- 
ley from Pittsburg to Natchez 
demanded the instant seiz- 
ure of New Orleans. In- 
deed, an attempt was made in Congress to authorize the 
formation of an army of fifty thousand men for this very 
purpose. 

Louisiana Purchased, 1803. — But President Jefferson did 
not want war ; instead, he obtained the consent of Congress to 
offer •i'2,000,000 for West Florida and New Orleans. Monroe 
was then sent to Paris to aid Livingston, our minister, in mak- 
ing the purchase, and much to their surprise Napoleon oft'ered 
to sell all Louisiana. 1 After some hesitation the oft'er was 
accepted. The price was •i'15,000,000, of which *1 1,250,000 




The Cabildo. City Hall of New Orleans. 



J Read the scene between Xapoleon and his brothers over the sale of Louisi- 
ana, as told in Adams's History of the U. *S'., Vol. II, pp. oS-SO. 



244 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

was paid to France and 83,750,000 to citizens of our country 
who had chiinis against France.^ 

The Boundaries of Louisiana. — The splendid territory thus 
acquired had never been given definite bounds. But resting 
on the discoveries and explorations of Marquette, Joliet, and 
La Salle, Louisiana was understood to extend westward to the 
Rio Grande and the Rocky Mountains, and northward to the 
sources of the rivers that flowed into the Mississippi. Whether 
the purchase included West Florida was doubtful, but we claimed 
it, so that our claim extended eastward to the Perdido River. 

The Territory of Orleans. — The country having been 
acquired, it had to be governed. So much of it as lay west of 
the Mississippi and south of 33° north latitude, with the city of 
New Orleans and the region round about it, was made the new 
territory of Orleans. The rest of the purchase west of the 
Mississippi was called the territory of Louisiana (map, p. 242). 

Louisiana Explored. — When the Louisiana purchase was 
made in 1803, most of the country was an unknown land. But 
in 1804 an exploring party under Meriwether Lewis and 
William Clark ^ went up the Missouri River from St. Louis, 

' 1 The transfer of Louisiana to France took place on November 30, 1803, and the 
delivery to us on December 20. Our commissioners William C. C. Claiborne 
and James Wilkinson met the French commissioner Laussat (lo-sah') in the 
hall of the Cabildo (a building still in existence, p. 243), presented their creden- 
tials, received the keys of the city, and listened to Laussat as he proclaimed 
Louisiana the property of the United States. This ceremony over, the commis- 
sioners stepped out on a balcony to witness the transfer of flags. The tricolor 
which floated from the top of a staff in the Place d'Armes (now Jackson 
Square) was drawn slowly down and the stars and stripes as slowly raised 
till the two met midway, when both were saluted by cannon. Our flag was 
then raised to the top of the pole, and that of France lowered and placed 
ill the hands of Laussat. One hundred years later the anniversary was cele- 
brated by repeating the same ceremony. The Federalists bitterly opposed 
the purchase of Louisiana. Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., 
Vol. IL pp. 629-03L For descriptions of life in Louisiana, read Cable's Creoles 
of Louisiana, The Grandissimes, and Strange True Stories of Louisiana. 

■^ Both Lewis and Clark were Virginians and experienced Indian fighters. 
On their return Lewis was made governor of the upper Louisiana territory, later 
called Missouri territory ; and died near Nashville in 1809. Clark was likewise 
a governor of Missouri Territory and later a Superintendent of Indian Affairs ; 
he died at St. Louis iu 1838. He was a younger brother of George Rogers Clark. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY, 1789-1805 



245 




iiiii ii i ^tii iii iW Mpwy^i^^»yw"»»yS'^ 




Branding iron used by Lewis. 



spent the winter of 1804-5 in what is now North Dakota, crossed 
the Rocky INIountains in the summer of 1805, and went down 
the Columbia to the Pacific. After passing a winter (1805-6) 
near the coast, the party 
started eastward in the 
spring, recrossed the moun- 
tains, and in the autumn 
reached St. Louis. 

St. Louis was then a little 
frontier hamlet of maybe a 
thousand people of all sorts 
— French, Spanish, Ameri- 
can, negro slaves, and Indians. 
The houses were built on a 
bottom or terrace at the foot 
of a limestone cliff and arranged along a few streets with 
French names. The chief occupation of the people was the 
fur trade, and to them the reports brought back by Lewis 
and Clark were so exciting that the St. l^ouis Fur Company 
was organized to hunt and trap on the upper Missouri. 

Reforms in the States. — During the years which had passed 
since the adoption of tlie Federal Constitution, great political 
reforms had been made. The doctrine that all men are born 
l^olitically equal was being put into practice, and the states had 
begun to reform their old constitutions or to adopt new ones, 
abolishing religious qualifications for officeholders or voters,^ 
and doing away with the property qualifications formerly re- 
quired of voters.^ Some states had reformed their laws for 
punisliing crime, had reduced the number of crimes punishable 
with death from fifteen or twenty to one or two, and had abol- 
ished whipping, branding, cutting off the ears, and other cruel 
punishments of colonial times. The right of man to life, 



1 Pennsylvania, Delaware, South Carolina, Georgia. 

2 In Pennsylvania all free male taxpayers could vote. Georgia and Dela- 
ware gave the suffrage to all free white male taxpayers. In Vermont and 
Kentucky there had never been a property qualification. 



246 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

liberty, and the pursuit of happiness was more fully recognized 
than ever before. 

Reforms in the Federal Government. — When the Republican 
party came into power in 1801, it was pledged to make reforms 
" to put the ship of state," as Jefferson said, " on the Republi- 
can tack." About a third of the important Federalist office- 
holders were accordingly removed from office, the annual 
speech at the opening of Congress was abolished, and the 
written message introduced — a custom followed ever since by 
our Presidents. Internal taxes were repealed, the army was 
reduced, the cost of government lessened, and millions of dollars 
set aside annually for the payment of the national debt. 

That there might never again be such a contested election 
as that of 1800, (congress submitted to the states an amend- 
ment to the Constitution providing that the electors should 
vote for President and Vice President on separate ballots, and 
not as theretofore on tlie same ballot. The states promptly rati- 
fied, and as the Twelfth Amendment it went into force in 1804 
in time for tlie election of tliat year. 

Jefferson Reelected. — The Federalist candidates for Presi- 
dent and Vice President in 1804 were Charles C. Pinckney and 
Rufus King; and the Re[)ublican, Thomas Jefferson and George 
Clinton.^ Jefferson and Clinton were elected by a very large 
majority. 

Burr kills Hamilton. — Vice-President Burr, who had con- 
sented to be a candidate for the presidenc}^ in 1801 (p. 235) 
against Jefferson, had never been forgiven by his party, and had 
ever since been a political outcast. His friends in New York, 
however, nominated him for governor and tried to get the sup- 
port of the Federalists, but Hamilton sought to prevent this. 
After Burr was defeated he challenged Hamilton to a duel 
(July, 1804) and killed him. 

1 Clinton was born in 1730, took an active part in Revolutionary affairs, 
was chosen governor of New York in 1777, and was reelected every election for 
eighteen years. He was the leader of the popular party in that state, was twice 
chosen Vice President of the United States, and died in that office in 1812. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY, 1789-1805 



247 



Burr's Conspiracy. — Fearing arrest for murder, Burr fled to 
Philadelphia and applied to the British minister for British 
help in effecting " a separation of the western part of the United 
States from that which lies between the 
Atlantic and the mountains"; for he 
believed the people in Orleans territory 
were eager to throw off American rule. 
After the end of his term as Vice Presi- 
dent (March 4, 1805) Burr went west 
and came back with a scheme for con- 
quering a region in the southwest, 
enlisted a few men in his entei'prise, 
assembled them at Blennerhassets Island 
in the Ohio River (a few miles below 
Marietta), and (in December, 1806) 
started for New Orleans. The boats 
with men and arms floated down the 
Ohio, entered the Mississippi, and were 
going down that river when General 
James Wilkinson, a fellow-conspirator, 
betrayed the scheme to Jefferson. Burr was arrested and sent 
to Virginia, charged with levying war against the United 
States, which was treason, and with setting on foot a military 
expedition against the dominions of the king of Spain, which 
was a "high misdemeanor." Of the charge of treason Burr 
Avas acquitted; that of high misdemeanor was sent to a court in 
Ohio for trial, and came to naught. ^ 




Burr's grave at Princeton, 
N. J.i 



1 The corners of the stone at the base have been broken off by relic hunters. 

- An account of Burr's trial is g\\en in Ada,ms's History of the U. ^Sl, Vol. HI, 

pp. 441-471 ; and in McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. IH, pp. 

79-88. 



SUMMARY 

1. With the establishment of government under the Constitution, con- 
fideuce was restored and prosperity began. 

2. Banks were chartered by the states, some roads and canals were 



248 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

constructed, and money was gathered by lotteries for all sorts of public 
improvements. 

3. New industries were started, and the cotton gin and other machines 
were invented. 

4. The defeat of the Indians, the removal of the British and Spanish 
from our Western country, and the sale of public land on credit encouraged 
a stream of emigrants into the West. 

5. Kentucky, Tennessee, and Ohio entered the Union, and the terri- 
tories of Mississippi, Indiana, and Michigan were organized. 

6. The cession of Louisiana to France in 1800, and the closing of the 
Mississippi River to Americans, led to the purchase of Louisiana in 1803. 

7. This great region was organized into the territories of Orleans and 
Louisiana ; and the width of the continent from St. Louis to the mouth of 
the Columbia was explored by Lewis and Clark. 

8. Many reforms were made in the state and national governments 
tending to make them more democratic. 

9. In 1804 Jefferson was reelected President, but Burr was not again 
chosen Vice President. Having engaged in a plan for conquering a region 
in the southwest (1806), Burr was arrested for treason, but was not con- 
demned. 















t 



\,\- . . ^-^^^ * '// 



// 






Pioneer hunter 



11,10 -^ 



k 



CHAPTER XX 
THE STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 

War with Tripoli. — In liis first inaugural Jefferson an- 
nounced a policy of peace, commerce, and friendship with all 
nations ; but unhappily he was not able to carry it out. Under 
treaties with Algiers, Trii^oli, and Tunis, we had paid tribute 
or made presents to these j^owers, to prevent them from attack- 
ing our sliips. In 1800, however, when Adams sent the yearly 
tribute to Algiers, the ruler of Tripoli demanded a large j^resent, 
and when it did not come, declared war. Expecting trouble 
with this nest of pirates, Jefferson in 1801 sent over a fleet 
which was to blockade the coast of Tripoli and that of any 
other Barbary power that might be at war with us. But four 
years passed, and Tripoli was five times bombarded before 
«• terms of peace were dictated by Captain Rodgers under the 
muzzles of his guns (1805). ^ 

Great Britain and France. — While our contest with Tripoli 
Avas dragging along, France and Great Britain again went to 
war (1803), and our neutral riglits w^ere again attacked. Brit- 
ish cruisers captui^ed many American ships on the ground that 
they were carrying on trade between the ports of France and 
her colonies. 

Napoleon attacked British commerce by decrees which 
closed the ports of Europe to British goods, declared a blockade 
of the British Isles, and made subject to capture any neutral 

1 During the war, in 1803, the frigate Philadelphia ran on the rocks in the 
harbor of Tripoli, and was captured by the Tripolitans. The Americans then 
determined to destroy her. Stephen Decatur sailed into the harbor with a vol- 
unteer crew in a little vessel disguised as a fishing boat. The Tripolitans allowed 
the Americans to come close, whereupon they boarded the Philadclphin, drove 
off the pirate crew, set the ve.ssel on fire, and escaped unharmed. 

249 



250 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

vessels that touched at a British port. Great Britain replied 
with orders in council, blockading the ports of France and her 
allies, and requiring all neutral vessels going to a closed port 
to stop at some British port and pay tribute. ^ 

As Great Britain ruled the sea, and Napoleon most of 
western Europe, these decrees and orders meant the ruin of our 
commerce. Against such rules of war our government pro- 
tested, claiming the right of "free trade," or the "freedom of 
the seas," — the right of a neutral to trade with either belliger- 
ent, provided the goods were not for use in actual war (as guns, 
powder, and shot). 

Our Sailors Impressed. — But we had j-et another cause of 
quarrel with Great Britain. She claimed that in time of war 
she had a right to the services of her sailors; that if they were 
on foreign ships, they must come home and serve on her war 
vessels. She denied that a British subject could become a 
naturalized American ; once a British subject, always a British 
subject, was her. doctrine. She stopped our vessels at sea, exam- 
ined the crews, and seized or " impressed " any British sub- 
jects found among them — and many American sailors as well. 
Against such " im})ressment " our government set up the claim 
of "sailors' rights" — denying the right of Great Britain to 
search our ships at sea or to seize sailors of any nationality 
while on board an American vessel. 

1 The French decrees and British orders in council were as follows : (1) Na- 
poleon began (1806) by issuing a decree closing the ports of Hamburg and 
Bremen (which he had lately captured) and so cutting off British trade with 
Germany. (2) Great Britain retaliated with an order in council (May, 1806), 
blockading the coast of Europe from Brest to the mouth of the river Elbe. 
(,3) Napoleon retaliated (November, 1806) with the Berlin Decree, declaring 
the British Isles in a state of blockade, and forbidding English trade with any 
country under French control. (4) Great Britain issued another order in coun- 
cil (November, 1807), commanding her naval officers to seize any neutral ves- 
sel going to any closed port in Europe unless it first touched at a British port, 
paid duty, and bought a license to trade. (5) Napoleon thereupon (December, 
1807) issued his Milan Decree, authorizing the seizure of any neutral vessel 
that had touched at any British port and taken out a license. Read Adams's 
History of the U. S., Vol. Ill, Chap. 16 ; Vol. IV, Chaps. 4, 5, 6 ; McMaster's 
HUory of the People of the U. S., Vol. Ill, pp. 219-223, 249-250, 272-274. 



STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL LXDEPENDENCE 



251 



The Attack on the Chesapeake. — Before 1805 Great Britain 
contined impressment to the high seas and to her own ports. 
After 1805 she carried it on also off our coasts and in our 
ports. Finally, in 1807, a British officer, hearing that some 
British sailors were among the crew of our frigate Chesapeake 
which was about to sail, 
only partly equipped, 
from the Washington 
navy yard, ordered the 
Leopard to follow the 
Chesapeake to sea and 
search her. This was 
done, and Avhen Commo- 
dore Barron refused to 
have his vessel searched, 
she was fired on by 
the Leopard, boarded, 
searched, and one British 
and three American sail- 
ors were taken from her 
deck.i 

Congress Retaliates. — 

It was now high time for 

us to strike back at France ^_^ 

and Great Britain, We -^ ,' "^ 

had either to fight for 

,, c- ,1 T -1 1 The Chesapeake surrenders to the Leopard. 

" tree trade and sailors 

rights," or to abandon the sea and stop all attempts to trade 
with Europe and Great Britain. Jefferson chose the latter 
course. Our retaliation therefore consisted of 

1. The Long Embargo (1807-9). 

2. The Non-intercour.se Act (1809). 

3. Macon's Bill No. 2 (1810). 

4. The Declaration of War (1812). 

iThe British sailor was hanged at Halifax. The three Americans were 
not returned till 1812. Read Maclay's History of the Navy, Vol. I, pp. 305-308. 




252 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

The Long Embargo. — Late in December, 1807, at the request 
of Jefferson, Congress laid an embargo and cut off all trade 
with foreign ports. ^ The restriction was so sweeping and the 
damage to farmers, planters, merchants, shipowners, and sailors 
so great, that the law was at once evaded. More stringent 
laws were therefore enacted, till at last trade along the coast 
from port to port was made all but impossible. Defiance to 
the embargo laws became so general ^ that a Force Act (1809) 
was passed, giving the President authority to use the army and 
navy in enforcing obedience. This was too much, and such a 
storm of indignation arose in the Eastern states that Congress 
repealed tlie embargo laws (1809) and substituted 

The Non-intercourse Act. — This forbade commerce with 
Great Britain and France, but allowed it with such countries 
as were not under French or British control. If either power 
would repeal its orders or decrees, the President was to 
annonnce this fact and renew commerce. with that power. 

Just at this time the second term of Jefferson ended,^ and 
Madison became President (March 4, 1809).* 

1 The Federalists ridiculed the embargo as the "terrapin-policy" ; that is, 
the United States, like a terrapin when struck, had pulled its head and feet 
within its shell instead of fighting. They reversed the letters so that they read 
'• o-grab-ine," and wrote the syllables backward so as to spell " go-bar-'em." 

"2 Head McMaster's History of the People of the U. .S'., Vol. Ill, pp. 279-838. 

3 The people would gladly have given him a third term. Indeed, the legis- 
latures of eight states invited him to be a candidate for reelection. In declin- 
ing he said, "If some termination to the services of the Chief Magistrate be 
not fixed by the Constitution, or supplied by practice, his office, nominally four 
years, will in fact become for life ; and history shows how easily that degener- 
ates into an inheritance." The examples of Washington and Jefferson estab- 
lished an unwritten law against a third term for any President. 

* James Madison was born in Virginia in 1751, and educated partly at Prince- 
ton. In 1776 he was a delegate to the Virginia convention to frame a state con- 
stitution, was a member of the first legislature under it, went to Congress in 
1780-83, and then returned to the .state legislature, 1784-87. He was one of 
the most important members of the convention that framed the United States 
Constitution. After the adoption of the Constitution, he led the Republican 
party in Congress (1789-97). He wrote the Virginia Resolutions of 1798. and 
in 1801-9 was Secretary of State under Jefferson. As the Republican candidate 
for President in 1808, he received 122 electoral votes against 47 for the Federal- 
ist candidate Charles C. Pinckney. He died in 1836. 



STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL LNDEPENDENCE 253 

The Erskine Agreement (1809). — And now the British minis- 
ter, Mr. Erskine, offered, in tlie name of the king, to lift the 
orders in council if the United States would renew trade with 
Great Britain. The offer was accepted, and the renewal of 
trade proclaimed. But when the king heard of it, he recalled 
Erskine and disavowed the agreement, and Madison was forced 
to declare trade with Great Britain again suspended. 

Macon's Bill No. 2. — Non-intercourse having failed. Congress 
in 1810 tried a new experiment, and by Macon's Bill No. 2 (so- 
called because it was the second of two bills introduced by Mr. 
Macon) restored trade with France and Great Britain. At 
the same time it provided that if either power would withdraw 
its decrees or orders, trade should be cut off with the other 
unless that power also would withdraw them. 

Napoleon now (1810) pretended to recall his decrees, but 
Great Britain refused to withdraw her orders in council, where- 
upon in 1811 trade was again stopped with Great Britain. 

The Declaration of War. — And now the end had come. 
We had either to submit tamely or to fight. The people de- 
cided to fight, and in the elections of 1810 completely changed 
the character of the House of Representatives. A large number 
of new members were elected, and the control of public affairs 
passed from men of the Revolutionary period to a younger set 
with very different views. Among them were two men who 
rose at once to leadership and remained so for nearly forty 
years to come. One was Henry Clay of Kentucky;^ the other 

1 Henry Clay, the son of a Baptist minister, was born in Virginia in 1777 in 
a neighborhood called " the Slashes." One of his boyhood duties was to ride to 
the mill with a bag of wheat or corn. Thus he earned the name of "the 
Mill Boy of the Slaslies," which in his campaigns for tlie presidency was 
used to get votes. His education was received in a log-cabin schoolhouse. At 
fourteen he was behind the counter in a store at Richmond ; but finally began to 
read law, and in 1797 moved to Kentucky to "grow up with the country." 
There he prospered greatly, and in 1803 was elected to the state legislature, 
in 1800 and again, in 1809-10 served as a United States senator to fill an 
unexpired term, and in 1811 entered the House of Representatives. From then 
till his death, June 29, 1852, he was one of the most important men in public life ; 
he was ten years .speaker of the House, four years Secretary of State, twenty 
years a senator, and three times a candidate for President. He was a great 



254 



DEVELOPxMENT OF THE UNION 



was John C. Calhoun of South Carolina. Clay was made speaker 
of the House of Representatives, and under his lead the House 
at once began preparations for war with Great Britain, which 
was formally declared in June, 1812. The causes stated by 
Madison in the proclamation were (1) impressing our sailors, 
(2) sending ships to cruise off our ports and search our ves- 
sels, (3) interfering with our trade by orders in council, and 
(4) urging the Indians to make war on the Western settlers. 

The Battle of Tippecanoe. — That the British had been 
tampering with the Indians was believed to be proved by the 

preparation of many of the In- 
dian tribes for war. From time 
to time some Indian of great 
ability had arisen and attempted 
to unite the tribes in a general 
war upon the whites. King 
Philip was such a leader, and so 
was Pontiac, and so at this time 
were the twin brothers Tecumthe 
and the Prophet. The purpose 
of Tecumthe was to unite all the 
tribes from the Great Lakes to the 
Gulf of Mexico in a general war, 
to drive t]ie whites from the 
Mississippi valley. After unit- 
ing many of the Northern tribes 
he went south, leaving his brother, the Prophet, in connnand. 
But the action of the Prophet so alarmed General Harrison,^ 

leader and an eloquent speaker. He was called "the Great Pacificator" and 
" the Great Compromiser," and one of his sayings, " I had rather be right than 
be President," has become famous. 

1 William Henry Harrison was a son of Benjamin Harrison, a signer of the 
Declaration of Independence. He was born in Virginia in 1778, served in the 
Indian campaigns under St. Clair and Wayne, commanded Fort Washington 
on the site of Cincinnati, was secretary of the Northwest Territory, and then 
delegate to Congress, and did much to secure the law for the sale of public land 
on credit. He was made governor of Indiana Territory in 1801, and won great 
fame as a general in the War of 1812. 




411 00 m 11)11 



Vicinity of the Tippecanoe River. 



STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 255 

governor of Indiana territor}^ that lie marched against the 
Indians and beat tliem at the Tippecanoe' (1811). ^ 

Madison Reelected. — As Madison was willing to be a war 
President the lve[)nblicans nominated him for a second terra of 
the presidency, with Elbridge Gerry ^ for the vice presidency. 
The Federalists and those opposed to war, the peace party, 
nominated DeWitt Clinton for President. Madison and Gerry 
were elected/^ 

The War opens. — The war which now followed, "Mr. 
Madison's Wai' "' as the Federalists called it, was fought along 
the edges of our country and on the sea. It may therefore be 
considered under four heads : — 

1. War on land along the Canadian frontier. 

2. War on land along the Atlantic seaboard, 

3. War on land along the Gulf coast. 

4. War on the sea. 

Scarcely had the fighting begun when news arrived that Great 
Britain had recalled the hated orders in council, but she 
would not give up the right of search and of impressment, so 
the war went on, as Madison believed that cause enough still 
remained. 



1 Tecumthe's efforts in the South led to a war with the Creeks in 1813-14. 
These Indians began by capturing Fort Minis in what is now southern xMabama, 
and killing many people there ; but they were soon subdued by General An- 
drew Jackson. Read Edward Eggleston"s Boxy; and Eggleston and Seelye's 
Tectunseh and the tShawnec Proplwt. 

'^ Gerry was a native of Mas.sacliusetts and one of the delegates who refused 
to sign the Constitution when it was framed in 1787. As a leading Republican 
he was chosen by Adams to represent his i)arty on the X. Y. Z. Mission. As 
governor of Massachusetts he signed a bill rearranging the senatorial districts 
in such wise that some towns having Federalist majorities were joined to others 
having greater Republican majorities, thus making more than a fair proportion 
of the districts Republican. This political fraud is called Gerrymandering. 
Gerry died November 23, 1814, the second Vice President to die in office. 

3 Eighteen states cast electoral votes at this election (1812). The electors 
were chosen by popular vote in eight states, and by vote of the legislature in ten 
states, including Louisiana (the former territory of Orleans), which was admit- 
ted into the Union April 8, 1812. The admission of Louisiana was bitterly op- 
posed by the Federalists. For their reasons, read a .speech by -Josiah Quincy in 
Johnston's American Orations, Vol. I, pp. 180-204. 



256 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 




Fighting on the Fron- 
tier, 1812. — The hope of 
the leaders of the war 

party, " War Hawks " as the Federalists called them, was to 
capture the British provinces north of us and make peace at 
Halifax. Three armies were therefore gathered along the 
Canadian frontier. One under General Hull was to cross at 
Detroit and march eastward. A second under General Van 
Rensselaer was to cross the Niagara River, join the forces under 
Hull, capture York (now Toronto), and then go on to Montreal. 
The third under General Dearborn was to enter Canada from 
northeastern New York, and meet 'the other troops near Mon- 
treal. The three armies were then to capture Montreal and 
Quebec and conquer Canada. 

But the plan failed ; Hull was driven out of Canada, and 
surrendered at Detroit. Van Rensselaer did not get a footing 
in Canada, and Dearborn Avent no farther than the northern 
boundary line of New York. 

Fighting on the Frontier, 1813. — The surrender of Hull filled 
the people with indignation, and a new army under William 



STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 257 

Henry Harrison was sent across the wilds of Ohio in the dead 
of winter to recapture Detroit. But the British and Indians 
attacked and captured part of the army at Frenchtown on the 
Raisin River, where the Indians massacred the prisoners. They 
then attacked Fort Meigs and Fort Stephenson, but were 
driven off. 

Battle of Lake Erie. — ^Meantime a young naval officer, 
Oliver Hazard Perry, was hastily building at Erie (Presque Isle) 
a little fleet to attack the British, whose fleet on Lake Erie had 
been built just as hurriedly. The fight took place near the 
west end of the lake and ended in the capture of all the British 
ships. 1 It was then that Perry sent off to Harrison those 
familiar words "We have met the enemy and they are ours.'*^ 

Battle of the Thames. — This signal victory gave Perry com- 
mand of Lake Erie and enabled him to carr}' Harrison's army 
over to Canada, wliere, on the Thames River, he beat the British 
and Indians and put them to flight.^ By these two victories 
of Perry and Harrison we regained all that we had lost by the 
surrender of Hull. On the New York frontier neither side 
accomplished anything decisive in 1813, though the public 
buildings at York (now Toronto) were destroj^ed, and some 
villages on both sides of the Niagara River were burned. 

Fighting on the Frontier, 1814. — Better officers were now 
put in command on the New York frontier, and during 1814 
our troops under Jacob Brown and W infield Scott captured 
Fort Erie and won the battles of Chippewa and Lundys Lane. 
But in the end the British drove our army out of Canada. 

1 Perry's flagship was named the Lavrence. after the gallant commander 
of the Chesapeake, captured a short while before off Boston. As Lawrence, 
mortally wounded, was carried below, he said to his men, "Don't give up the 
ship." Perry put at the masthead of the Lawrence a blue pennant bearing the 
words "Don't give up the ship," and fought two of the lai'gest vessels of the 
enemy till every gun on his engaged side was disabled, and but twenty men 
out of a hundred and three were unhurt. Then entering a boat with his 
brother and four seamen, he was rowed to the Niagara, which he brought into 
the battle, and with it broke the enemy's line and won. 

2 The story of the naval war is told in Maclay's History of the JVacy, Part 
Third ; and in Roosevelt's Naval War of 1S12. 

3 In this battle the great Indian leader Tecumthe was killed. 

MrM. BRIEF 16 



258 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



Further eastward the British gathered a fleet on Lake 
Champlain and sent an army to attack Plattsburg, but Thomas 
Macdonough utterly destroyed the fleet in Plattsburg Bay, and 
the army was repulsed. 

Fighting along the Seaboard. — During 1812 and 1813 the 
Britisb did little more tlian blockade our coast from Rhode 
Island to New Orleans, leaving all the east coast of New Eng- 
land unmolested.^ But in 1814 the entire coast was blockaded, 
the eastern part of Maine was seized and occupied, and Ston- 
ington in Connecticut was bombarded. 

Washington and Baltimore Attacked. — A fleet entered 
Chesapeake Bay and landed an army which marched to 
Washington, burned the Capitol, the President's house, the 

Treasury Building, and 

,JrfT(m|i!lfP6lri m^^vvin 



Ruins of the Capitol after the fire. 



other public buildings,^ 
and with the aid of the 
fleet made a vain attack 
on Baltimore. 

It was during the bom- 
bardment of a fort near 
Baltimore that Francis Scott Key, temporarily a prisoner with 
the British, wrote The Star-spangled Banner. 

Fighting along the Gulf Coast. — After the repulse at Balti- 
more the Britisli aruiy was carried to the island of Jamaica to 
join a great expedition fitting out for an attack on New Orleans. 
It was November before tlie fleet bearing the army set sail, and 
December when the troops landed on the southeast coast of 
Louisiana and started for the Mississippi. On the banks of that 

1 In New England the ruin of commerce made the war most unpopular, and 
it was because of this that the Britisli did not at first blockade .the New England 
coast. British goods came to Boston, Salem, and other ports in neutral ships, 
or in British ships disguised as neutral, and great quantities of them were carried 
in four-horse wagons to the South, whence raw cotton was brought back to 
New England to be shipped abroad. The Republicans made great fun of this 
" ox-and-horse-marine." 

2 For a description of the scenes in Washington, read McMaster's History of 
the People, of the TJ. S., Vol. IV, pp. 138-147 ; or Adams's History of the U. S., 
Vol. VIII, pp. 144-152 ; or Memoirs of Dolly Madison, Chap. 8. 



STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL LNDEPENDEXCE 



259 



river, a few miles below New Orleans, they met our forces under 
General Andrew Jackson drawn up behind a line of rude in- 
trenchments, attacked them on the 8th of January, 1815, and 
were badlv beaten. 




Battle of New Orleans. From an old print. 

The Sea Fights. — The victories won by the army were 
indeed important, but those by the navy were more glorious 
still. In years before the war British captains laughed at our 
little navy and called our ships " fir-built things with a bit of 
striped bunting at their mastheads." These fir-built tilings 
now inflicted on the British navy a series of defeats such as it 
had never before suffered from any nation. 

Before the end of 1812 the frigate Constitution, " Old 
Ironsides" as she is still popularly called/ beat the Griier- 
riere (gar-e-ar') so badly that she could not be brought to 

^ Read Holmes's poem Old Ironsides. 



260 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 





(0> — ^"i^g; 

Naval cannon of 1812. 

surrenderinof she went down 



Gutlass. 



port; the little sloop Wasp almost shot to pieces 
tlie British sloop Frolic;'^ the frigate United 
States brought the Macedonian in triumpli to New- 
port (R. I.);2 and the Constitution made a wreck 
of the Java. 

In 1813 the JA^^^^^^^^"^ 

Horviet, Com- 
mander James 
Lawrence, so 
riddled the Brit- 
isli sloop I*ea- 
cock that after 

carrying with her nine of her own crew and three 
of the Hornet's. The brig Enterprise., William 
liurrows in command, fought the British brig 
Boxer., Captain Blythe, off Portland harbor, Maine. 
Both commanders were killed, but the Boxer was taken and 
carried into Portland, where Burrows and Blythe, wrapped 
in the flags they had so well defended, were buried in the 
Eastern Cemetery which overlooks the bay. 

1 This battle was fought on a clear moonlight night and was full of dramatic 
incidents. A storm had lashed the sea into fury and the waves were running 
mountain high. Wave after wave swept the deck of the Wasp and drenched 
the sailors. The two sloops rolled till the muzzles of their guns dipped in the 
sea ; but both crews cheered heartily and fought on till, as the Wasp rubbed 
across the bow of the Frolic, her jib boom came in between the masts of the 
Wasp. A boarding party then leaped upon her bowsprit, and as they ran down 
the deck were amaz'ed to see nobody save the man at the wheel and three 
wounded officers. As the British were not able to lower their flag. Lieutenant 
Biddle of the Wasp hauled it down. Scarcely had this been done when the 
British frigate Poictiers came in sight, and chased and overhauled the Wasji 
and captured her, 

- Of all the British frigates captured during the war, the 3Iacedoninn was 
the only one brought to port. The others were shot to pieces and sank or were 
destroyed soon after the battle. The Macedonian arrived at Newport in December, 
1812. When the lieutenant bearing her flag and dispatches reached Washington, 
he was informed that a naval ball was being held in honor of the capture of the 
Guerrie.re and another ship, and that their flags were hanging on the wall. Has- 
tening to the hotel, he announced himself and was quickly escorted to the ball- 
room, where, with cheers and singing, the flag of the Macedonian was hung 
beside those of the other two captured vessels. 



STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 261 

The Chesapeake Captured. — But we too met with defeats. 
When Lawrence returned home with tlie Hornet, he was given 
command of the Chesapeake, then fitting out in Boston harbor, 
and while so engaged was challenged by the commander of the 
British frigate Shannon to come out and fight. He went, was 
mortally wounded, and a second time the Chesapeake struck 
to tlie British. As Lawrence was carried below he cried out, 
" Don't give up the ship — keep her. guns going — fight her till 
she sinks" ; but the British carried her by boarding. 

The brig Argus, while destroying merchantmen off the Eng- 
lish coast, Avas taken by the liritish brig Pelican} 

Peace. — Quite early in the war Russia tendered her services 
as mediator and they were accepted by us. Great Britain de- 
clined, but offered to treat directly if commissioners were sent 
to some neutral port. John Quincy Adams, Henry Clay, Albert 
Gallatin, James A. Bayard, and Jonathan Russell were duly 
appointed, and late in December, 1814, signed a treaty of peace 
at Ghent. Nothing was said in it about impressment, search, or 
orders in council, nor indeed about any of the causes of the war. 

Nevertheless the gain was great. Our naval victories made 
us respected abroad and showed us to be the equal of any 
maritime power. At home, the war aroused a national feel- 
ing, did much to consolidate the Union, and put an end to our 
old colonial dependence on Europe. Thenceforth Americans 
looked westward, not eastward. 

The Hartford Convention. — News of the treaty signed in 
December, 1814, did not reach our country till February, 1815.2 

1 In October, 1812, the frigate Essex, Captain Porter in command, sailed 
from Delaware Bay, cruised down the east and up the west coast of South 
America, and captured seven British vessels. But she was captured near Val- 
paraiso by the British frigates Chenih and Phoehe in March, 1814. In January. 
1815, the President, Commodore Decatur, was captured off Long Island by a 
British squadron of four vessels. In February the Constitntinn, Captain Stew- 
art, when near Madeira, captured the Cijane and the Levant. 

- Some idea of the difficulty of travel and the transmission of news in those 
days may be gained from the fact that when the agent bearing the treaty of 
peace arrived at New, York February 11, 1815, an express rider was sent post 
haste to Boston, at a cost of $225. 



262 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

Had there been ocean steamships or cables in those days, two 
famous events in our history woukl not have happened. The 
battle of New Orleans would not have been fought, and the 
report of the Hartford Convention would not have been pub- 
lished. The Hartford Convention was composed of Federalist 
delegates from the New England states,^ met in December, 
1814, and held its sessions in secret. But its report proposed 
some amendments to the United States Constitution, state 
armies to defend New England, and the retention of a part of 
the federal taxes to pay the cost. Congress was to be asked to 
agree to this, and if it declined, the state legislatures were to 
send delegates to another convention to meet in June, 1815.^ 
When the commissioners to present these demands reached 
Washington, peace had been declared, and they went home, 
followed by the jeers of the nation. 

1 The states of Vermont and New Hampshire sent no delegates to this con- 
vention ; but three delegates wei-e appointed by certain counties in those stales. 
When Connecticut and Rhode Island chose delegates, a Federalist newspaper 
published in Boston welcomed them in an article headed '' Second and Third 
rillars of a New Federal Edifice Keared." Despite the action of the Hartford 
Convention, the fact remains that Massachusetts contributed more than her 
proportionate share of money and troops for the war. 

2 The report is printed in MacDonald's Select Documents. 

SUMMARY 

1. The war with Tripoli (1801-5) ended in victory for our navy. 

2. The renewal of war between France and Great Britain involved us 
in more serious trouble. 

'^. When France attacked British commerce by decrees, Great Britain 
replied with orders in council (1806-7). In these paper blockades we were 
the chief sufferers. 

•1. Great Britain claimed a right to take her subjects off American 
ships, and while impressing many British sailors into her navy, she im- 
pressed many Americans also. 

5. She sent vessels of war to our coast to search our ships, and in 1807 
even seized sailors on board an American ship of war, the Chesapeake. 

6. Congress retaliated with several measures cutting off trade with 
France and Great Britain; these failing, war on Great Britain was declared 
in 1812. 



STRUGGLE FOR COMMERCIAL INDEPENDENCE 



263 



7. Wiw on land was begun by attempts to invade Canada from Detroit, 
Niagara, and northeastern New York. These attempts failed, and Detroit 
was captured by the British. 

8. In 1813 Perry won a great naval victory on Lake Erie; and the 
American soldiers, after a reverse at Frenchtown, invaded Canada and won 
the battle of the Thames. 

9. In 1814 the Americans won the battles of Chippewa and Lundys 
Lane, but were later driven from Canada. A British invasion of New York 
met disaster at Plattsburg Bay. 

10. Along the seaboard the British blockaded the entire coast, seized the 
eastern part of JNIaine, took Washington and burned tlie public buildings, 
and attacked Baltimore. 

11. Later New Orleans was attacked, but in 181.3 Jackson won a signal 
victoi-y and drove the British from Louisiana. 

12. On the sea our vessels won many ship duels. 

lo. Peace was made in 181-1, just as the New England Federalists were 
holding their Hartford Convention. The war resulted in strengthening the 
Union and making it more respected. 




Fhntlock musket, such as was used in the War of 1812. 



CHAPTER XXI 
RISE OF THE AVEST 

Trade, Commerce, and the Fisheries. — The treaty of 1814 
did not end our troubles with Great Britain. Our ships were 
still shut out of her West Indian ports. The fort at Astoria, 
near the mouth of the Columbia River, had been seized during 
the war and for a time was not returned as the treaty required. 
The authorities in Nova Scotia claimed that we no longer had 
a right to fish in British waters, and seized our fishing vessels 
or drove them from the fishing grounds. We had no trade 
treaty with Great Britain. In 1815, therefore, a convention 
was made regulating trade with Great Britain and her East 
Indian colonies, but not with her West Indies;^ in 1817, a very 
important agreement limited the navies on the Great Lakes ;^ 
and in 1818 a convention was made defending our fishing rights 
in British waters.^ 

Banks and the Currency. — But there were also domestic 
affairs which required attention. When the charter of the 

1 A serious quarrel over the West Indian trade now arose and was not 
settled till 1830. Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. V, 
pp. 48:1-487. 

2 The agreement of 1817 provided that each power might have one armed 
vessel on Lake Ontario, two on the upper lakes, and one on Lake ChampJain. 
Each vessel was to have but one eighteen-pound cannon. All other armed 
vessels were to be dismantled and no others were to be built or armed. In 
Europe such a water boundary between two powers would have been guarded 
by strong fleets and forts and many armed men. 

3 The fishery treaty provides (1) that our citizens m^y forever catch and dry 
fish on certain parts of the coasts of Newfoundland and of Labrador ; (2) that 
they may not catch fish within three miles of any other of the coasts of the 
British dominions in America ; (3) that our fishermen may enter the harbors on 
these other coasts for shelter, or to obtain water, or wood, or to repair damages, 
" and for no other purpose whatever." 

264 



RISE OF THE WEST 



265 




The first Bank of the United States. 



Bank of the United States (p. 224) expired in 1811, it Avas not 
renewed, for the party in power denied tliat Congress had au- 
thority to charter a bank. A host of banks chartered by the 
states thereupon sprang 
up, in hope of getting 
some of the business 
formerly done by the 
national bank and its 
branches. 

In three years' time 
one hundred and twenty 
ncAV state banks were 
created. Each issued 
bank notes with a prom- 
ise to exchange them for 
specie (gold or silver coin) on demand. In 1(S14, however, 
nearly all the banks outside of New England ''suspended 
specie payment"; that is, refused to redeem their notes in 
specie. Persons having gold and silver money tlien kept it, 
and the only money left in circulation was the bank notes — 
which, a few miles away from the place of issue, would not pass 
at their face value. ^ 

Business and travel were seriously interfered with, and in 
order to provide the people with some kind of money which 
would pass at the same value everywhere. Congress in 1816 
chartered a second Bank of the United States,^ very much like 
the first one, for a period of twenty years. 

Manufactures and the Tariff. — Piefore the embargo days, 
trade and commerce were so profitable, because of the war in 
Europe, that manufactures were neglected. Almost all manu- 



1 As to the straits to which people were put for small change, read McMas- 
ter's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. IV, pp. '297-298. 

2 This bank had branches in the various states, and specie could be had for 
its notes at any branch. Hence its notes passed at their face value over all the 
country, and became, like specie, of the same value everywhere. Authority to 
charter the bank was found in the provision of the Constitution giving Congress 
power to "regulate the currency." 



266 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

factured articles — cotton and woolen goods, china, glass, edge 
tools, and what not — were imported, from Great Britain chiefly. 

But the moment our foreign trade was cut off by the 
embargo, manufactures sprang up, and money hitherto put 
into ships and commerce was invested in mills and factories. 
Societies for the encouragement of domestic manufactures were 
started everywhere. To wear American-made clothes, walk 
in American-made shoes, write on American-made paper, and 
use American-made furniture were acts of patriotism which 
the people publicly pledged themselves to perform. Thus 
encouraged, manufactories so throve and flourished that by 
1810 the value of goods made in our country each year was 
^173,000,000. 

When trade was resumed with Great Britain after the war, 
her goods were sent over in immense quantities. Tliis hurt 
our manufacturers, and therefore Congress in 1816 laid a tariff 
or tax on imjiorted manufactures, for the purpose of keeping 
the price of foreign goods high and thus protecting home manu- 
factures. 

Prosperity of the Country. — Despite the injury done by 
British orders, French decrees, the embargo, non-intercourse, 
and the war, the country grew more prosperous year by year. 
Cities were growing, new towns were being planted, rivers 
were being bridged, colleges,^ academies, schools, were spring- 
ing up, several thousand miles of turnpike had been built, 
and over these good roads better stagecoaches drawn by better 
horses carried the mail and travelers in quicker time than ever 
before. 

Routes to the West. — Goods for Pittsburg and the West 
could now leave Philadelpliia every day in huge canvas-covered 
wagons drawn by four or six horses, and were only twenty 
days on the road. The carrying trade in this way was very 
o-reat. More than twelve thousand wagons came to Pittsburg 
each year, bringing goods worth several millions of dollars. 

1 Thirty-nine of our colleges, theological seminaries, and universities were 
founded between 1788 and 1820. 



RISE OF THE WEST 



267 



From New York wares and merchandise for the West went in 
sloops up the Hudson to Albany, were wagoned to the falls of 
the JNlohawk, where they were put into " Schenectady boats," 







Routes from Philadelphia and New York to the West. 

Avhicli were pushed by poles up the Mohawk to Utica. Thence 
they went by canal and river to Oswego on Lake Ontario, in 
sloops to Lewiston on the Niagara River, by wagon to Buffalo, 
by sloop to Westfield on Lake Erie, by wagon to Chautauqua 
Lake, and thence by boat down the lake and the Allegheny 
River to Pittsburg. 

The Steamboat. — The growth of the country and the in- 
crease in travel now made the steamboat possible. Before 1807 



268 



DEVELOPMEAT OF THE UNION 



all attempts to use such boats had failed. ^ But when Fulton 
in that year ran the Clermont from New York to Albany 
and back, practical steam navigation began. In 1808 a line of 




I'liniti/i'i hij E. L. Hennj. 



An early ferryboat. 



steamboats ran up and down the Hudson. In 1809 there was 
one on the Delaware, another on tlie Raritan, and a third on 
Lake Champlain. In 1811 a steamboat went from Pittsburg 
to New Orleans, and in 1812 there were steam ferryboats 
between what is now Jersey City and New York, and between 
Philadelphia and Camden.^ 

Py the use of the steamboat and better roads it was possible 

1 For Kuiiisey and Fitch, see p. 230. William Longstreet in 1790 tried a small 
model .steam.boat on the Savannah River; and in 1794 Elijah Ormsbee at Provi- 
dence and Samuel Morey on Long Island Sound, in 1796 John Fitch on a pond in 
New York city, in 1797 Morey on the Delaware, in 1802 Oliver Evans at Phila- 
delphia, and in 1804 and 1800 John Stevens at Hoboken, demonstrated that 
hoats coidd be moved by steam. But none had made the steamboat a pi'actical 
success. 

2 The state of New York gave Fulton and his partner,*Livingston, the sole 
right to use steamboats on the waters of the state. This monopoly was evaded by 
using teamboats, on which the machinery that turned the paddle wheel was 
moved by six or eight horses hitched to a crank and walking round and round 
in a circle on the deck. Teamboats were used chiefly as ferryboats. Read 
McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. IV, pp. 397-407. 



II 



RISE OF THE WEST 269 

in 1820 to go from New Yoik to Philadelphia between sunrise 
and sunset in summer, and from New York to Boston in forty- 
eight hours, and from Boston to Washington in less than five 
days. 

The Rush to the West. — After the peace in 1815 came a 
period of hard times. Great Britain kept our ships out of 
her ports in the West Indies. France, Spain, and Holland 
did their own trading Avith their colonies. Demands for our 
products fell off, trade and commerce declined, thousands of 
people were thrown out of employment, and another wave of 
emigration started westward. Nothing like it had ever before 
been known. Peo^jle went by tens of thousands, building new 
towns and villages, clearing the forests, and turning tlie prairies 
into farms and gardens. Some went in wagons, some on 
horseback ; great numbers even went on foot, pushing their 
children and household goods in handcarts, in wheelbarrows, in 
little box carts on four small wheels made of plank. ^ 

Once on tlie frontier, the pioneer, the " mover," the " new- 
comer," would secure his plot of land, cut down a few trees, 
and build a half-faced camp, — a shed with a roof of sapling 
and bark, and one side ojien, — and in this he would live till 
the log cabin was finished. 

The Log Cabin. — To build a log cabin the settler would 
fell trees of the proper size, cut thera into logs, and with his 
ax notch them half through at the ends. Laid one on another 
these logs formed the four sides of the cabin. Openings were 

1 Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. IV, pp. 381-394. 
All the great highways to the West were crowded with bands of emigrants. In 
nine days 260 wagons bound for the West passed through one New York town. 
At Easton, in Pennsylvania, on a favorite route from New England (map, p. 194), 
511 wagons accompanied by 3066 persons passed in a month. A tollgate keeper 
on another route reported 2000 families as having passed during nine months. 
From Alabama, whither people were hurrying to settle on the cotton lands, came 
reports of a migration quite as large. When the census of 1820 was taken, the 
returns showed that there were but 75 more people in Delaware in 1820 than 
there were in 1810. In the city of Charleston there were 24,711 people in 1810 
and 24,780 in 1820. In many states along the seaboard the rate of increase of 
population was less during the census period 1810-20 than it had been before, 
because of the great numbers who had left for the West. 



270 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



left for a door, one window, and a huge fireplace ; the cracks 
between the logs were filled with mud ; the roof was of hewn 
boards, and the chimney of logs smeared on 
the inside with clay and lined at the bottom 
with stones. Greased paper did duty for 
glass in the window. The door swung on 
wooden hinges and was fastened with a wooden 
latch on the inside, which was raised from 
the outside by a leather string passed tlirough 
a hole in the door. Some cabins had no floor 
but the earth; in others the floor was of 
puncheons, or planks split and hewn from 
trunks of trees and laid w4th the round side 
dowii.^ 

Pioneer Life. — If the farm were wooded, 
the first labor of the settler was to grub up 
the bushes, cut down the smaller trees, and 
kill the larger ones by cutting a girdle around each near the 
roots. When the trees were felled, the neighbors would come 
and help roll the logs into great piles for burning. From 
the ashes the settler made potash; for many years potash was 
one of the important exports of the country. 

In the land thus cleared and laid open to the sun the pio- 
neer planted his corn, flax, wheat, and vegetables. The corn he 
shelled on a gritter, and ground in a handraill, or pounded 




1 If the newcomer chose some settlement for his home, the neighbors would 
gather when the logs were cut, hold a " raising," and build his cabin In the 
course of one day. Tables, chairs, and other furniture were generally made by 
the settler with his own hands. Brooms and brushes were of corn husks, and 
many of his utensils were cut from the trunks of trees. "I know of no scene 
more primitive," said a Kentucky pioneer, "than such a cabin hearth as that 
of my mothei*s. In the morning a buckeye backlog, a hickory forestick, rest- 
ing on stones, with a johnny cake on a clean ash board, set before the fire to 
bake ; a frying pan with its long handle resting on a splint-bottom chair, and 
a teakettle swung from a log pole, with myself setting the table, or turning the 
meat. Then came the blowing of the conch-shell for father in the field, the 
howling of old Lion, the gathering around the table, the blessing, the dull 
clatter of pewter spoons on pewter dishes, and the talk about the crops and 
stock." 



RISE OF THE WEST 



271 



in a wooden mortar with a wooden pestle, or carried on horse- 
back to some mill perhaps fifteen miles away. 

Cooking stoves were not used. Game was roasted by hang- 
ing it by a leather string be- 
fore an open fire. All l)ak- 
ing was done in a Dntch 
oven on the hearth, or in an 
out oven built, as its name 
implies, out of doors. ^ 

Deerskin in the early 
days, and later tow linen, 
woolens, jeans, and linseys, 
were the chief materials for 
clothing till store goods be- 
came common.^ The amuse- 
ments of the pioneers were 
like those of colonial days — 
sliooting matches, bear hunts, 
races, militia musters, rais- 
ings, log rollings, weddings, corn huskings, and quilting parties. 

Five New States. — The first effect of tlie emigration to the 
West was such an increase of popidation there tliat five new 
states were admitted in five years. They were Indiana (1816), 
Mississippi (1817), Illinois (1818), Alabama (181!)), Missouri 
(1821). As Louisiana (1812) and Maine (1820) had also been 
admitted by 1821, the Union then included twenty-four states 
(map. ]). 279). 

Power of the West. — A second result of this building of the 
West was an increase in its political importance. The West 




Breaking flax. 



1 For an account of the social conditions in 1820, read McMaster's History 
of tlip People of the U. S., Vol. IV, Chap, xxxvli ; also Eggleston's Circuit 
Bider, Cooper's Prairie, and BecoJJections of Life in Ohio, by W. C. Howells. 

- A story is told of an early settler who was elected to the territorial legis- 
lature of Illinois. Till then he had always worn buckskin clothes, but thinking 
them unbecoming a lawmaker, he and his sons gathered hazelnuts and bar- 
tered them at the crossroads store for a few yards of blue strouding, out of which 
the women of the settlement made him a coat and pantaloons. 



272 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



in 1815 sent to Congress 8 senators and 23 members of the 
House ; after 1822 it sent 18 senators out of 18, and 47 members 
of the House out of 213. 

Trade of the West. — A third result was a struggle for the 
trade of the West. Favored by the river system, the farmers of 




Trading with a river merchant. 

tlie West were able to float their produce, on raft and flat- 
boat, to New Orleans. Before the introduction of the steam- 
boat, navigation up the Mississippi was all but impossible. 
Flatboats, rafts, barges, broadhorns, with their contents, were 
therefore sold at New Orleans, and the money brought back to 
Pittsburg or Wheeling and there used to buy the manufactures 
sent from tlie Eastern states. But now a score of steamboats 
went down and up the Mississippi and the Ohio, stopping at 
Cincinnati, Louisville, St. Louis, Natchez, and a host of smaller 
towns, loaded with goods obtained at Pittsburg and New 
Orleans.^ Commercially the West was independent of the 

1 On the Ohio River floated odd craft of many sorts. There were timber 
rafts from the mountain streams ; pirogues built of trunks of trees ; broadhorns, 
huge pointed and covered hulks carrying 50 tons of freight and floating down- 



RISE OF THE WEST 273 

East. The Western trade of New York, Philadelphia, and 
Baltimore was seriously threatened. 

The Erie Canal. — So valuable was this trade, and so impor- 
tant to the East, that New York in 1817 began the construction 
of the Erie Canal from Albany to Buffalo, and finished it in 
1825.1 The resnlt, as we shall see in a later chapter, was far- 
reaching. 

Slavery. — A fourth result of the rush to the West was the 
rise of the question of slaverj^ beyond the Mississippi. 

Before the adoption of the Constitution, as we have seen, 
slavery was forbidden or was in course of abolition in the five 
New England states, in Pennsylvania, and in the Northwest 
Territory. Since the adoption of the Constitution gradual 
abolition laws had been adopted in New York (1799) and in 
New Jersey (1804 ).2 Kentucky, Tennessee, Louisiana, JNlissis- 

stream with the current and upstream by means of poles, sails, oars, or ropes ; 
keel boats for upstream work, with long, narrow, pointed bow and stern, roofed, 
manned with a crew of ten men, and propelled with setting poles ; flatboats which 
went downstream with the i^ioneer never to come back — flat-bottomed, box- 
shaped craft manned by a crew of six, kept in the current by oars oO feet long 
called " sweeps" and a steering oar 50 feet long at the stern. Those intended 
to go down the Mississippi were strongly built, roofed over, and known as 
" Orleans boats." " Kentucky flatboats" for use on the Ohio were half roofed 
and slighter. Mingled with tliese were arks, galleys, rafts, and shanty boats of 
every sort, and floating shops carrying goods, wares, and merchandise to every 
farmhouse and settlement along the river bank. Now it would be a floating lot- 
tery office, where tickets were sold for pork, grain, or produce ; now a tinner's 
establishment, where tinware was sold or mended ; now a smithy, where horses 
and oxen were sliod and wagons mended ; now a factory for the manufacture of 
axes, scythes, and edge tools ; now a dry-goods shop fitted up just as were such 
shops in the villages, and filled with all sorts of goods and wares needed by the 
settlers. 

1 This canal was originally a ditch 4 feet deep, 40 feet wide, and oC>o miles 
long. The chief promoter was De Witt Clinton. The opponents of the canal 
therefore called it in derision "Clinton's big ditch," and declared that it could 
never be made a success. But Clinton and his friends carried the canal to com- 
pletion, and in 182-5 a fleet of canal boats left Buffalo, went through the canal, 
down the Hudson, and out into New York Bay. There fresh water brought from 
Lake Erie in a keg was poured into the salt water of the Atlantic. 

■■^ It was once hoped that Southern states also would in time abolish slavery ; 
but as more and more land was devoted to cotton raising in the South, the 
demand for slave labor there increased. The South came to regard slavery as 
necessary for her prosperity, and to desire its extension to more territory. 

MoM. BRIEF 17 



274 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

sippi, and Alabama came into the Union as slave-holding 
states ; and Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois (besides Vermont) as 
free states. So in 1819 tlie dividing line between the eleven 
free and the eleven slave states was the south boundary line 
of Pennsylvania (p. 81) and the Ohio River, 

Slavery beyond the Mississippi. — By 1819 so many people 
had crossed the ^lississippi and settled on the west bank and up 
the Missouri that Congress was asked to make a new territory 
to be called Arkansas and a new state to be named Missouri. 

Whether the new state was to be slave or free was not stated, 
but the Missourians owned slaves and a settlement of this matter 
was important for two reasons : (1) there were then eleven slave 
and eleven free states, and the admission of Missouri would up- 
set this balance in the Senate ; (2) her entrance into the Union 
would probably settle the policy as to slavery in the remainder 
of the great Louisiana Purchase. The South therefore insisted 
that ^Missouri should be a slave-holding state, and the Senate 
voted to admit her as such. The North insisted that slavery 
should be abolished in Missouri, and the House of Representa- 
tives voted to admit her as a free state. As neither would 
yield, the question went over to the next session of Congress. 

Maine. — By that time Maine, which belonged to Massa- 
cliusetts, had obtained leave to frame a constitution, and 
applied for admission as a free state. This afforded a chance 
to pi-eserve the balance of states in the Senate, and Congress 
accordingly ])assed at the same time tAvo bills, one to admit 
Maine as a free state, and one to authorize Missouri to make 
a proslavery constitution. 

The Missouri Compromise, 1820. — The second of these bills 
embodied the Missouri Compromise, or Compromise of 1820, 
which provided that in all the territory purchased from France 
in 1803 and lying north of the parallel 36° 30' there never 
should be slavery, except in Missouri (map p. 279). ^ 

^ Meantime Arkansas (1819) had been organized as a slave-holding territory. 
As Missouri had to make a state constitution and submit it to Congress she 
did not enter the Union till 1821. The Compromise line 36° 30' was part of the 



RISE OF THE WEST 



275 



This Compromise left a great region from which free states 
might he made in future, and very little for slave states. We 
shall see the consequences of this by and by. 

Exploration of the West. — West of Missouri the country was 
still a \\ ilderness overrun by Indians, and by buffalo and other 
wild animals. Many believed it to be almost uninhabitable. 




Buffalo running away from a prairie fire. 

Pike, who (1806-7) marched across the plains from St. Louis 
to the neighborhood of Pikes Peak and on to the upper waters 
of the Rio Grande, and Long, who (1820) followed Pike, 
brought back dismal accounts of the counti-y. Pike reported 
that the banks of the Kansas, the Platte, and the Arkansas riv- 
ers might "admit of a limited population," but not the plains. 
Long said the country west of Council Bluffs "■ is almost wholly 
unfit for cultivation, and of course uninhabitable by people de- 
pending on agriculture," and that bej'ond the Rockies it was 
"destined to be tlie abode of perfect desolation." 

The Great American Desert. — This started the belief that 
in the West was a great desert, and for many years geographers 

south boundary of Missouri and extended to the 100th meridian. Missouri did 
not have the present northwestern boundary till 183(5 ; compare maps on pp. 279 
and .S-}1. On the Compromise read the speech of Senator Hufus King, in John- 
ston's Anwrkan Orations, Vol. II, pp. 3o-(')'2 ; and that of Senator Pinckney, 
pp. 63-101. 



276 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

indicated such a desert on their maps. It covered most of what is 
now Nebraska, Kansas, and Okhihoma, and parts of Texas, Coki- 
rado, and South Dakota. One geographer (1835) dechired, ••' a 
hirge part maybe likened to the Great Sahara or African Desert." 

The Northwestern Boundary. — When Louisiana was pur- 
chased in 1803 no boundary was given it on the north or west. 

By treaty with Great Britain in 1818, tlie 49th parallel 
was made our northern boundary from the Lake of the Woods 
to the summit of the Rocky Mountains.^ 

The Oregon Country. — The country west of the sources of 
the Missouri River and the Rocky Mountains, the region drained 
by the Columbia, or as it was sometimes called the Oregon, 
River, was claimed by both Great Britain and the United 
States. As neither would yield, it was agreed that the Oregon 
country should be held jointly for a time.^ 

The Spanish Boundary. — ^ South of Oregon and west of the 
mountains lay the possessions of Spain, with which country in 
1819 we made a treaty, fixing the western limits of the Louisiana 
Purchase. We began by claiming as far as the Rio Grande, and 
asking for Florida. We ended by accepting the line sliown on 
the map, p. 278, and buying Florida.^ 

1 By the treaty with Great Britain in 1783 a line was to be drawn from the 
Lake of the Woods (hie. west to the Mississippi. This was impossible, but the 
difficulty was ended by the treaty of 1818. From the northwesternmost point 
of the Lake of the Woods a line (as the treaty provides) is drawn due south to 
the 49th parallel. This makes a little knob on our boundary. 

2 We claimed it because in 1792 Captain Gray, in the ship Columbia, dis- 
covered the river, entered, and named it after his ship ; because in 1805-6 
Lewis and Clark explored both its main branches and spent the winter near its 
mouth; and because in 1811 an American fur-trading post, Astoria, was built on 
the banks of the Columbia near its mouth. Great Britain claimed a part of it 
because of explorations under Vancouver (1792), and occupation of various posts 
by the Hudson's Bay Company. At first Oregon was the country drained by 
the Columbia River. Through our treaty with Spain, in 1819, part of the 42d 
parallel was made the southern boundary. In 1824, by treaty with Russia, the 
country which then owned Alaska, 54° 40' became the northern boundary. 
The Rocky Mountains were understood to be the eastern limit. 

3 What is called the purchase of Florida consisted in releasing Spain from all 
liability for damages of many sorts inflicted on our citizens from 1793 to the date 
of the treaty, and paying them ourselves; the sum was not to exceed $5,000,000. 



RISE OF THE WEST 



277 



SUMMARY 

1. The treaty of peace in 1814 left several issues unsettled ; it was there- 
fore followed by a trade treaty with Great Britain, an agreement to limit 
naval power on the northern lakes, and (1818) a treaty about fisheries in 
British waters. 

2. The suspension of specie payments by the state banks during the 
war caused such disorder in the currency that a national bank was chartered 
to regulate it. 

3. The embargo, by cutting off importation of British goods, encouraged 
home manufactures. Heavy im[ ortations after the war injured home manu- 
factures, and to help them Congress enacted a protective tariff law. 

4. Despite commercial troubles and the war, the people were prosperous. 
New towns were founded, travel was improved, the steamboat was intro- 
duced, and the West grew rajaidly. 

5. After 1815 a great wave of population poured over the West. 

6. Seven new states were admitted between 1812 and 1821. 

7. A struggle for the trade of the growing W^est led to the building of 
the Erie Canal. 

8. A struggle over slavery led to the INIissouri Compromise (1820). 

9. By treaties with Great Britain and Spain, boundaries of the Louisiana 
Purchase were established, Florida was purchased, and the Oregon country 
was held jointly with Great Britain. 




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An old stagecoach 



'III., hi, lU'i'i. ''I r. Kl.n-kii 




278 




279 



CHAPTER XXII 
THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING 

The Party Issues. — The issues which divided the Federal- 
ists and the Republicans from 1793 to 1815 arose chiefly from 
our foreign relations. Neutrality, French decrees, British 
orders in council, search, impressment, the embargo, non-inter- 
course, the war, were the matters that concerned the people. 
Soon after 1815 all this changed ; Napoleon was a prisoner at 
St. Helena, Europe was at peace, and domestic issuer began to 
be more important. 

The Era of Good Feeling. — The election of 1816, however, 
was decided chiefly on tlie issues of the war. James Monroe, ^ 
the Republican candidate for President, was elected by a very 
large majority over Rufus King. During Monroe's term domes- 
tic issues were growing up, but liad not become national. They 
were rather sectional. Party feeling subsided, and this was so 
noticeable that his term was called '' the Era of Good Feeling." 
In this condition of affairs the Federalist party died out, and 
when Monroe was renominated in 1820, no competitor appeared. ^ 
The Federalists presented no candidate. 

1 James Monroe was a Virginian, born in 1758; he entered William and 
Mary College, served in the Continental army, was a member of the Virginia 
Assembly, of the Continental Congress for three years, and of the Virginia con- 
vention that adopted the Federal Constitution in 1788. He strongly opposed 
the adoption of the Constitution. As United States senator (1790-94), he op- 
posed Washington's administration ; but was sent as minister to France (1794-96). 
In 1799-1802 Monroe was governor of Virginia, and then was sent to France to 
aid Livingston in the purchase of Louisiana ; was minister to Great Britain 
1804-6, and in 1811-17 was Secretary of State, and in 1814-15 acted also as 
Secretary of War. In 1817-25 he was President. He died in 1831. 

2 Monroe carried every state in the Union and was entitled to every electoral 
vote. But one elector did not vote for him, in order that Washington might 
still have the honor of being the only President unanimously elected. 

280 



THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING 281 

Political Events. — The chief political events of Monroe's 
first term (1817-21), as we have seen, were the admission of 
several new states, the Compromise of 1820, and the treaties of 
1818 and 1819, with Great Britain and Spain. The chief politi- 
cal events of his second term (1821-25) were : a dispute over 
the disposition of public lands in the new states ;i a dispute 
over the power of Congress to aid the building of roads and 
canals, called "internal improvements" ; the recognition of the 
independence of South American colonies of Spain ; the an- 
nouncement of the Monroe Doctrine ; the passage of a new 
tariff act ; and the breaking up of the Republican party. 

The South American Republics. — In 1808 Napoleon invaded 
Spain, drove out the king, and placed his brother Joseph Bona- 
parte on the throne. Thereupon many of the Spanish colonies 
in America rebelled and organized themselves as republics. 
When Napoleon was sent to St. Helena, the Spanish king (who 
was restored in 1814) brought back most of the colonies to 
their allegiance. La Plata, however, rebelled, and was quickly 
followed by the others. In 1822 President Monroe recognized 
the independence of La Plata (Argentina), Chile, Peru, Colom- 
bia, Mexico, and Central America. 

The Holy Alliance. — Tiie king of Spain, unable to conquer 
the revolted colonies, applied for aid to the Holy Alliance which 
was formed by Russia, Prussia, Austria, and France for the pur- 
pose of maintaining monarchical government in Europe. For a 
while these powers did nothing, but in 1823 they called a con- 
ference to consider the question of restoring to Spain her South 
American colonies. But the South Ameiican republics had 
won tlieir independence from Spain, and had been recognized by 
us as sovereign powers ; what right had other nations to com- 
bine and force them back again to the condition of colonies ? 
In his annual message (December, 1823) the President there- 

1 In the new Western states were great tracts which belon.oed to tlie United 
States, and which the Western states now asked should be given to them, or at 
least be sold to them for a few cents an acre. The East opposed this, and 
asked for gifts of Western land which they might sell so as to use the money to 
build roads and canals and establish free schools. 



282 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 




An old-time sofa. 



fore took occasion to make certain announcements which have 
ever since been called the Monroe Doctrine.^ 

The Monroe Doctrine. — Referring to the conduct of the 

Holy Alliance, he said — 

1. That the United 
States would not meddle 
in the political affairs of 
Europe. 

2. That European gov- 
ernments must not extend 

their system to any part of North and South America, nor in 
any way seek to control the destiny of any of the nations of 
this hemisphere. 

As Russia had been attempting to plant a colony on the coast 
of California, whicli was then a part of Mexico, the President 
announced (as another part of the doctrine) — 

3. That the American continents were no longer open for 
colonization by European powers. 

The Tariff of 1824. — -Failure of the tariff of 1816 to shut 
out British manufactures, the hard times of 1819, and the gen- 
eral ruin of business led to 
a demand for another tariff 
in 1820. To this the cotton 
states were bitterly opposed. 
In the South there were no 
manufacturing centers, no 
great manufacturing indus- 
tries of any sort. The plant- 
ers sold their cotton to 
the North and (chiefly) to 
Great Britain, from which they bought almost all kinds of man- 
ufactured goods they used. Naturally, they wanted low duties 
on their imported articles ; just enough tax to support the 
■ government and no more. 

In the North, especially in towns now almost wholly given 

iRead McMaster's History of the People of the TJ. S., Vol. V, pp. 28-54. 



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THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING 283 

up to manufactures, as Lynn and Lowell and Fall River and 
Providence and Cohoes and Paterson and others ; in regions 
where the farmers were raising sheep for wool ; in Pennsyl- 
vania, where iron was mined ; and in Kentucky, where the 
hemp fields were, people wanted domestic manufactures pro- 
tected by a high tariff. 

The struggle was a long one. At each session of Congress 
from 1820 to 1824 the question came up. Finally in 1824 a 
new tariff for protection was enacted despite the efforts of the 
South and part of New England. 

Breaking up of the Republican Party. — Though the three 
questions of internal improvements, the tariff, and the use 
of the public lands led to bitter disputes, they did less to 
break up the party harmony than the action of the leaders. 
After the second election of Monroe the question of his suc- 
cessor at once arose. The people of Tennessee nominated 
Andrew Jackson ; South Carolina named the Secretary oi 
War, Calhoun ; Kentucky wanted Henry Clay, who had long 
been speaker of the House of Representatives ; the New 
England states were for John Quincy Adams, the Secretary 
of State. Finally the usual party caucus of Republican mem- 
bers of Congress nominated Crawford of Georgia, the Secretary 
of the Treasury. 

The Election of 1824-25. — -The withdrawal of Calhoun 
from the race for the presidency left in it Adams, Clay, Craw- 
ford, and Jackson, representing the four sections of the country 
— Northeast, Northwest, Southeast, Southwest. As no one had 
a majority of the electoral votes, it became the duty of the 
House of Representatives to elect one from the three who had 
received the highest 'votes. ^ They were Jackson, Adams, and 
Crawford. The House chose Adams,^ who was duly inaugurated 

1 Jackson had 99 votes, Adams 84, Crawford 41, and Clay 37. The Consti- 
tution (Article XII of the amendments) provides that if no person have a 
majority of the electoral votes, "then from the persons having the highest 
numbers, not exceeding three, on the list of those voted for as I'resident, the 
House of Representatives shall choose immediately, by ballot, the President. " 

■^ By a vote of 13 states, against 7 for Jackson, and 4 for Crawford. 



284 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

in 1825.1 The electoral college bad elected Calhoun Vice 
President. 2 

The Charge of Corruption. — The friends of Jackson were 
bitterly disappointed by his defeat. He was "the Man of the 
People," had received the highest number of electoral votes 
(though not a majority), and ought, they said, to have been 
elected by the House. That he had not been elected was 
due, tliey claimed, to a bargain : Clay was to urge Ids friends 
to vote for Adams ; if elected, Adams was to make Clay 
Secretary of State. No such bargain was ever made. But 
after Adams became President he appointed Clay Secretary of 
State, and then the supporters of Jackson were convinced that 
the charge was true. 

Rise of New Parties. — The legislature of Tennessee, 
therefore, at once renominated Jackson, and about him gathered 
all who, for any reason, disliked Adams and Clay, all who were 
opposed to the tariff and iuternal improvements, or wanted " a 
man of the people " for Presideut. They were called Jackson 
men, or Democratic Republicans. 

Adams, it was well known, would also be renominated, as 

1 John Quincy Adams was born atBraintree, Massachusetts, in 1767, went 
with his father John Adams to France, and spent several years abroad ; then 
graduated from Harvard, studied law, and was appointed by Washington min- 
ister to the Netherlands and then to Poitugal, and in 1797 to Prussia. He 
was a senator from Massachusetts in 1803-8. In 180U Madison sent him as min- 
ister to Russia, where he was when the war opened in 1812. Of the five com- 
missioners at Ghent he was the ablest and the uiost conspicuous. In 1815 
Madison appointed him minister to Great Britain, and in 1817 he came home to 
be Secretary of State under Monroe. In 1831 he became a member of the House 
of Representatives and continued as such till stricken in the House with paral- 
ysis in February, 1848. 

2 John Caldwell Calhoun was born in South Carolina in 1782, entered Ynle 
College in 1802, studied law, and became a lawyer at Abbeville, South Carolina, 
in 1807. In 1808 he went to the legislature, and in 1811 entered Congress, and 
was appointed chairman of the committee on foreign relations. As such he 
wrote the report and resolutions in favor of war with Great Britain. At this 
period of liis career he favored a liberal construction of the Constitution, and 
supported the tariff of 1816, the charter of the Second Bank of the United States, 
and internal improvements. He was Secretary of War in Monroe's Cabinet, and 
was Vice President from 1825 until 1832, when he resigned and entered the 
Senate, where he remained most of the time till his death in 1850. 







Letter written by Jackson, then a senator. 



285 



286 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

the candidate of the supporters of the tariff and internal im- 
provements. They were the Adams men, or National Republi- 
cans. Thus was the once harmonious Republican party broken 
into fragments, out of which grew two distinctly new parties. 

The Tariff of 1828. — The act of 182-i not proving satisfac- 
tory to the growers and manufacturers of wool, a new tariff law 
was enacted in 1828. So many and so high were the duties 
laid tluit the opponeuts of protection named the law the Tariff 
of Abominations. To the cotton states it was particularly hate- 
ful, and in memorials, resolutions, and protests they declared 
that a tariff for protection was unconstitutional, unjust, and 
oppressive. They made threats of ceasing to trade with the 
tariff states, and talked of nullifying, or refusing to obey the 
law, and even of leaving the Union. 

The Election of 1828. — (ireat as was the excitement in the 
South over this new tariff" law, it produced little effect in the 
struggle for the presidency. The campaign had really been 
going on for three years past and would have ended in the elec- 
tion of Jackson had the tariff never existed. " Old Hickory," 
the " Hero of New Orleans," the " Man of the People," was 
more than ever the favorite of the hour, and though his party 
was anti-tariff he carried states where the voters were deeply 
interested in the protection of manufactures. Indeed, he received 
more than twice the number of electoral votes cast for Adams. ^ 

1 This election is noteworthy also as the first in which nearly all the states 
chose electors by popular vote. Only two of the twenty-four states made the 
choice by vote of the legislature ; in the others the popular vote for Jackson elect- 
ors numbered 647,276 and those for Adams electors 508,064. A good book on 
presidential elections is A History of the Presidency, by Edward Stanwood. 

SUMMARY 

1. After the election of Monroe (1816) the Federalist party died out, 
the old party issues disappeared, and Monroe's term is known as the Era 
of Good Feeling. 

2. The South American colonies of Spain, having rebelled, formed re- 
publics, and were recognized by the United States. To prevent interfer- 
ence with them by European powers, especially by the Holy Alliance, 
Monroe announced the doctrine now known by his name (182.3). 



THE ERA OF GOOD FEELING 



287 



3. The growth of the West and the rise of new states brought up the 
question of internal improvements at national exjiense. 

4. The growth of manufactures brought up the question of more pro- 
tection and a new tariif. In 1824 a new tariff law was enacted, in spite of 
the opposition of the South, which had no manufactures and imported 
largely from Great Britain. 

5. These issues, which were largely sectional, and the action of certain 
leaders, spVit the Republican party, and led to the nominaticfn of four presi- 
dential candidates in 1824. 

6. The electors failed to choose a President, but did elect a Vice Presi- 
dent. Adams was then elected President by the House of Representatives. 

7. A new tariff was enacted in 1828, though the South opposed it even 
more strongly than the tariff of 1824. 

8. In 1828 Jackson, one of the candidates defeated in 1824, was elected 
President. 




A Conestoga wagon, such as was in use about 1825. 



CHAPTER XXIII 

POLITICS FROM 1829 TO 1841 

In many respects the election of Jackson ^ was an event of as 
much political importance as was the election of Jefferson. 
Men hailed it as another great uprising of the people, as another 
triumph of democracy. They acted as if the country had been 
delivered from impending evil, and hurried by thousands to 
Washington to see the hero inaugurated and the era of prom- 
ised reform opened. ^ 

1 Andrew Jackson was born in Waxhaw, North Carolina, 1767, but always 
considered himself a native of South Carolina, for the place of his birth was ou the 
border of the two states. During the Revolution a party of British came to the 
.settlement where Jackson lived. An officer ordered the boy to clean his boots, 
and when Jackson refused, struck liim with a sword, inflicting wounds on his 
head and arm. Andrew and his brothers were taken prisoners to Camden. His 
mother obtained his release and shortly after died wlule on her way to nurse the 
sick prisoners in Charleston. Left an orphan, Jackson worked at saddlery, taught 
school, studied law, and went to Tennessee in 1788; was appointed a district 
attorney, in 1796 was the first representative to Congress from the state of 
Tennessee, and in 1797 became one of its senators. In 1798-1801 he was one 
of the judges of the Tennessee supreme court. His military career began in 
1818-14, when he beat the Indians in the Creek War. In 1814 he was made 
a major general, in 1815 won the battle of New Orleans, and in 1818 beat 
the Seminoles in Florida. He was the first governor of the territory of Florida. 
He died in June, 1845. Read the account of Jackson's action in the Seminole 
War and the execution of Arbuthnot and Ambrister, in McMaster's Histurij of 
the People of the U. S., Vol. IV, pp. 439-456. 

2 The inauguration was of the simplest kind. Uncovered, on foot, escorted 
by the connnittee in charge, and surrounded on both sides by gigs, wood wagons, 
hacks full of women and children, and followed by thousands of men from all 
parts of the country, Jackson walked from his hotel to the Capitol and on the 
east portico took the oath of office. A wild rush was then made by the people 
to shake his hand. With difficulty the President reached a horse and started 
for the White House, "pursued by a motley concourse of people, riding, 
running helter-skelter, striving who should first gain admittance." So great 
was the crowd at the White House that Jackson was pushed through the drawing 
room and would have been crushed against the wall had not his friends linked 
arms and made a barrier about him. The windows had to be opened to enable 
the crowd to leave the room. 

288 



POLITICS FROM 1829 TO 1841 



289 



The New Party. — Jackson treated the public offices as the 
"spoils of victory," and within a few weeks hundreds of post- 
masters, collectors of revenue, and other officeholders were turned 
out, and their places given 
to active workers for Jack- 
son. This "spoils system "' 
was new in national politics 
and created immense excite- 
ment. But it was nothing 
more than an attempt to 
build up a new national 
party in the same way that 
parties had already been 
built up in some of the 
states.^ 

Jackson as President. — 
In many respects Jackson's 
administration was the most 
exciting the country had yet 
experienced. Never since 
the days of President John 
Adams had party feeling run so high. The vigorous person- 
ality of the President, his intense sincerity, his determination 
to do, at all hazards, just what he believed to be right, made 
him devoted friends and bitter enemies and led to his ad- 
ministration being often called the Reign of Andrew Jackson. 
The questions with which he had to deal were of serious impor- 
tance, and on the solution of some of them hung the safety of 
the republic. 

The South Carolina Doctrine. — Such a one was the old issue 











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1 Editors of newspapers that supported Jackson were given office or were 
rewarded with public printing, and a party press devoted to the President was 
thus established. To keep both workers and newspapers posted as to the policy 
of the administration, there was set up at Washington a partisan journal for which 
all officeholders were expected to subscribe. The President, ignoring his secre- 
taries, turned for advice to a few party leaders whom the Adams men nicknamed 
the "Kitchen Cabinet." 



290 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

of the tariff. The view of the South as set forth by the leaders, 
especially by Calhoun of South Carolina, was that the state 
ought to nullify the Tariff Act of 1828 because it was uncon- 
stitutional.^ Daniel Webster attacked this South Carolina 
doctrine and (1830) argued the issue with Senator Hayne of 
South Carolina. The speeches of the two men in the Senate, 
the debate which followed, and the importance of the issue, 
make the occasion a famous one in our history. That South 
Carolina would go so far as actually to carry out the doctrine 
and nullify the tariff did not seem likel3^ But the seriousness 
of South Carolina alarmed the friends of the tariff', and in 1832 
Congress amended the act of 1828 and reduced the duties. 

South Carolina nullifies the Tariff. — This did not satisfy 
South Carolina. The new tariff still protected manufactures, 
and it was protection that she opposed ; and in November, 1832, 
she adopted the Ordinance of Nullification, which forbade any 
of her citizens to pay the tariff duties after February 1, 1833. 

When Congress met in December, 1832, the great question 
was what to do with South Carolina. Jackson was determined 
the law should be obeyed,^ sent vessels to Charleston harbor, 
and asked for a Force Act to enable him to collect the revenue 
by force if necessary.'^ 

The Great Debate. — In the course of the debate on the 
Force Act, Calhoun (wlio had resigned the vice presidency and 

1 Calhoun maintained (1) that the Constitution is a compact or contract be- 
tween the states ; (2) that Congress can only exercise such power as this com- 
pact gives it ; (3) that when Congress assumes power not given it, and enacts a 
law it has no authority to enact, any state may veto, or nullify, that law, that is, 
declare it not a law within her boundary ; (4) that Congress has no authority 
to lay a tariff for any other purpose than to pay the debts of the United States ; 
(5) that the tariff to protect manufactures was therefore an exercise of power 
not granted by the Constitution. This view of the Constitution was held by the 
Southern states genei'ally. But as the two most ardent expounders of it were 
Hayne and Calhoun, both of South Carolina, it was called the South Carolina 
doctrine. 

2 On the anniversary of Jefferson's birthday, April 13, 1830, a great dinner 
was given in Washington at which nullification speeches were made in response 
to toasts. Jackson was present, and when called on for a toast offered this : 
*' Our Federal Union, it must be preserved." 

3 Kead McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. VI, pp. 153-163. 



POLITICS FROM 1829 TO 1841 



291 



had been elected a senator from South Carolina) explained and 
defended nullification and contended that it was a peaceable 
and lawful remedy and a proper exercise of state rights. Web- 
ster ^ denied that the 
Constitution was a mere 
compact, declared that 
nullification and seces- 
sion were rebellion, and 
upheld the authority and 
sovereignty of the Union. ^ 
The Compromise of 
1833. — ^'l;iy meantime 
came forward with a com- 
promise. He proposed 
that the tariff of 1832 
should be reduced grad- 
ually till 1842, when all 
duties should be twenty 
per cent on the value of 
the articles imported. 
As such duties would not be protective, Calhoun and the other 
Southern members accepted the plan, and the Compromise 

1 Daniel Webster was born in New Hampshire in 1782, graduated from Dart- 
mouth, studied law, wrote some pamphlets, and made several Fourth of July 
orations, praising the Federal Constitution and denouncing the embargo. In 
1813 he entered Congress as a representative from New Hampshire, but lost his 
seat by removing to Boston in 1816. In 1823 Webster returned to Congress as a 
representative from one of the Massachusetts districts, rose at once to a place 
of leadership, and in 1827 entered the United States Senate. By this time he 
was famous as an orator. Passages from his speeches were recited by school- 
boys, and such phrases as " Our country, our whole country, and nothing btit our 
country," "Thank God, I, I also, am an American," "Independence now, 
and Independence forever!" passed into everyday speech. In hi.-; second 
reply to Hayne of South Carolina, defending and explaining the Constitution 
(p. 290) , he closed with the words "Liberty and Union, now and forever, one and 
inseparable." In 1830 he received the electoral vote of Massachusetts for the 
presidency. He was a senator for many years, was twice Secretary of State, 
and died in October, 1852. 

2 Read the speeches of Calhotm in Johnston's American Orations, Vol. I, 
pp. 303-319. 




Birthplace of Daniel Webster. 



292 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

Tariff was passed in March, 1833.1 Xo satisfy the North 
and uphold the authority of the government, the Force Act 
also was passed. But as South Carolina repealed the Ordi- 
nance of Nullification there was never any need to use 
force. 

First National Nominating Conventions. — In the midst of 
the excitement over the tariff, came the election of 1832. Since 
1824, when the Republican party was breaking up, presidential 
candidates had been nominated by state legislatures and cau- 
cuses of members of state legislatures. But in 1831 the Antima- 
sons^ held a convention at Baltimore, nominated William Wirt 
and Amos Ellmaker for President and Vice President, and so 
introduced the national nominating convention. 

The example thus set was quickly followed: in December, 
1831, a national convention of National Republicans nominated 
Clay (then a senator) for President, and John Sergeant for Vice 
President. In May, 1832, a national convention of Jackson 
men, or Democrats as some called tliem, nominated Martin Van 
Buren for Vice President. There was no need to renominate 
Jackson, for in a letter to some friends he had already declared 
himself a candidate, and many state legislatures had made the 
nomination. He was still the idol of the people and was re- 
elected by a greater majority than in 1828. 

The Bank Attacked. — One of the issues in the campaign was 
the recharter of the Bank of the United States, whose charter 
was to expire in 1836. Jackson always hated that institution, 

1 Shortly before February 1, 1833, the day on which nullification was to 
go into effect, the South Carolina leaders met and suspended the Ordinance 
of Nullification till March 3, the last day of the session of Congress. This, of 
course, they had no power to do. The state authorities did not think it wise to 
put the ordinance in force till they saw what Congi-ess would do with the 
tariff. 

- In 1826 a Mason named William Morgan, living at Batavia, in western 
New York, threatened to reveal the secrets of masonry. But about the time 
his book was to appear, he suddenly disappeared. The Masons were accused of 
having killed him, and the people of western New York denounced them at 
public meetings as members of a society dangerous to the state. A party 
pledged to exclude Masons from public office was quickly formed and soon 
spread into Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New England, where it became very strong. 



POLITICS FROM 1829 TO 1841 293 

had attacked it in his annual messages, and had vetoed (1832) 
a recharter bill passed (for political effect) by Clay and his 
friends in Congress. 

Removal of the Deposits. — Jackson therefore looked upon 
his reelection as a popular approval of his treatment of the bank. 
He continued to attack it, and in 1833 requested the Secretary 
of the Treasury, William Duane, to remove the deposits of 
government money from the bank and its branches. When 
Duane refused, Jackson turned him out of office and put in 
Roger B. Taney, who made the removal. ^ 

The Senate passed resolutions, moved by Clay, censuring the 
President for this action ; but Senator Benton of Missouri 
said that he would not rest till the censure was expunged. 
Expunging now became a party question ; state after state in- 
structed its senators to vote for it, and finally in 1837 the 
Senate ordered a black line to be drawn around the resolutions 
and the words " Expunged by order of the Senate " to be writ- 
ten across them. 

Rise of the Whig Party. — The hatred which the National 
Republicans felt for Jacks(Ui was intense. Tliey accused him 
of trjdng to set up a despotic government, and, asserting that 
they were contending against the same kind of tyranny our 
forefathers fought against in the War of Independence, they 
called themselves Whigs. In the state elections of 1834 the 
new name came into general use, and thenceforth for many 
years there was a national Whig party. 

The Antislavery Movement. — The Missouri Compromise 
Avas supposed to have settled the issue of slavery. But its 
effect was just the reverse. Antislavery agitators were aroused. 
The antislavery newspapers grew more numerous and aggres- 
sive. New antislavery societies were formed and old ones were 

1 This so-called removal consisted in depositing the revenue, as it was col- 
lected, in a few state banks, the "pet banks," — instead of in the United 
States Bank as before, — and gradually drawing out the money on deposit with 
the United States Bank. Read an account of the interviews of Jackson with 
committees from public meetings in McMaster's Hixtory of the People of the 
U. S., Vol. VI, pp. 200-204. 

M< M. BRIEF — 18 



294 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



revived and became aggressive, and in 1833 delegates from 
many of them met at Philadelphia and formed the American 
Antislavery Society.^ 

Antislavery Documents. — The field of work for the anti- 
slavery people was naturally the South. That section was 

flooded with newspapers^ 
pamphlets, pictures, and 
handbills intended to stir 
up sentiment for instant 
abolition of slavery and 
liberation of the slaves. 
Against this the South 
protested, declared such 
documents were likely to 
cause slaves to run away or 
rise in insurrection, and 
called on the North to sup- 
press them. 

Proslavery Mobs. — To 
stop tlieir circulation by 
legal means was not possible ; so attempts were made to do 
it by illegal means. In many Northern cities, as Philadelphia, 
New York, Boston, Utica, and elsewhere, mobs broke up the 
antislavery meetings. In Charleston, South Carolina, the 
postmaster seized some antislavery documents and the people 
burned them. At Cincinnati the newspaper office of James 
G. Birney was twice sacked and his presses destroyed (1836). 
Another at Alton, Illinois, was four times attacked, and the 
owner, Elijah Lovejoy, was at last killed by the mob while 
protecting his press. 

The Right of Petition. — Not content with this, the pro- 
slavery people attempted to pass a bill through Congress (1836) 

1 The principles of this new society were : (1) that each state had a right to 
regulate slavery within its boundaries ; (2) that Congress should stop the inter- 
state slave trade ; (3) that Congress should abolish slavery in the territories and 
in the District of Columbia ; (4) that Congress should admit no more slave states 
into the Union. 




Slave quarters on a southern plantation. 



POLITICS FROM 1829 TO 1841 295 

to exclude antislavery documents from the mails, and even 
attacked the right of petition. The bill to close the mails to 
antislavery documents failed. But the attempt to exclude 
antislavery petitions from the House of Representatives suc- 
ceeded : a " Gag Rule " was adopted which forbade any petition, 
resolution, or paper relating in any way to slavery or the aboli- 
tion of slavery to be received, and this was in force down to 
1844.1 

Our Country out of Debt. — Despite all this political commo- 
tion our country for years past had prospered greatly. In this 
IDrosperity the government had shared. Its income had far 
exceeded its expenses, and by using the surplus year by year 
to reduce the national debt it succeeded in paying the last dollar 
by 1835. 

The Surplus. — After the debt was extinguished a surplus 
still remained, and was greatly increased by a sudden specula- 
tion in public lands, so that by the middle of 1836 the govern- 
ment had more than 1^40,000,000 of surplus money in the banks. 

What to do with the money was a serious question, and 
all sorts of uses were suggested. But Congress decided that 
from the surplus as it existed on January 1, 1837, -f 5,000, 000 
should be subtracted and the remainder distributed among the 
states in four installments. ^ 

The Election of Van Buren. — When the time came to 
clioose a successor to Jackson, a Democratic national convention 
iiominated Martin Van Buren, with Richard M. Johnson for 
Vice President. The Whigs were too disorganized to hold a 
national convention ; but most of them favored William Henry 
Harrison for President. Van Buren was elected (1836) ; but 
no candidate for Vice President received a majority of the 
electoral vote. The duty of choosing that officer therefore 

1 Read Whittier's poem A Summons — "Lines written on the adoption of 
Pinckney's Resolutions." 

2 Tlie surplus on January 1, 1837, was $42,468,000. The amount to be dis- 
tributed therefore was $37,468,000. Only three installments (a little over 
§•28,000,000) were paid. For the use the states made of the money, read McMas- 
ter'.s History of the People of the U. S., Vol. VI, pp. 351-358. 



296 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



passed to the United States Senate, which elected Richard M. 
Johnson. 

The Era of Speculation. — On March 4, 1837, Van Bnren ^ 
entered on a term made memorable by one of the worst panics 
our country has experienced. From 183-1: to 1836 was a period 
of wild speculation. Money was plentiful and easy to borrow, 
and was invested in all sorts of schemes by which people ex- 
pected to make fortunes. Millions of acres of the public land 
were bought and held for a rise in price. Real estate in the 
cities sold for fabulous prices. Cotton, timber lands in Maine, 
railroad, canal, bank, and state stocks, and lots in Western 

towns which had no existence save on 
i^aper, all were objects of speculation. 
Panic of 1837. — IMoney used for 
these purposes was borrowed largely 
from the state banks, and much of it 
was the surplus which the govern- 
ment had deposited in tlie banks. 
When, therefore, in January, 1837, 
the government drew out one quarter 
of its surplus to distribute among the 
states, the banks were forced to stop 
making loans and call in some of the 
money they had lent. This hurt busi- 
ness of every sort. Quite unexpect- 
edly the price of cotton fell ; this ruined many. Business 
men failed by scores, and the merchants of New York ap- 




New York merchant, 1837. 



1 Martin Van Buren was born in New York state in 1782, studied law, began 
his political career at eighteen, and held several offices before he was sent to 
the state senate in 1812. From 1815 to 1819 he was attorney general of New 
York, became United States senator in 1821, and was reelected in 1827 ; but 
resigned in 1828 to become governor of New York. Jackson appointed him 
Secretary of State in 1829 ; but he resigned in 1881 and was sent as minister to 
Great Britain. The appointment was made during a recess of the Senate, which 
later refused to confirm the appointment, and Van Buren was forced to come 
home. Because of this " party persecution " the Democrats nominated him for 
Vice President in 1832, and from 183;] to 1837 he had the pleasure of presiding ovi r 
the body that had rejected him. He died in 1862. 



POLITICS FROxM 1829 TO 1841 297 

pealed to Van Bureii to assemble Congress and stop the fur- 
ther distribution of the surplus. Van Buren refused, and the 
banks of New York city suspended specie payment, that is, no 
longer redeemed their notes in gold and silver. Those in every 
other state followed, and a panic swept over the country. ^ 

The New National Debt. — With business at a standstill, 
tlie national revenues fell off; and the desperate financial state 
of the country forced Van Buren to call Congress together in 
September. By that time the third installment of the surplus 
had been paid to the states, and times were harder than ever. 
To mend matters Congress suspended payment of the fourth 
installment, and authorized the debts of the government to be 
paid in treasury notes. This put our country again in debt, 
and it has ever since remained so. 

Political Discontent. — As always happens in periods of 
financial distress, liard times bred political discontent. The 
Whigs laid all the blame on the Democrats, who, they said, had 
destroyed the United States Bank, and by their reckless financial 
j^olicy had caused the panic and tlie hard times. Whetlier tliis 
was true or not, the people believed it, and various state elec- 
tions showed signs of a Whig victory in 1840.'-^ 

1 Specie payment was resumed in the autumn of 1838 ; but most of tlie 
banks again suspended in 1839, and again in 1841. Read tlie account of the 
panic in McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Vol. VI, pp. 398-405. 

' Financial distress was not the only thing that troubled Van Buren's ad- 
ministration. During 1837 many Canadians rebelled against misrule, and began 
the "Patriot War" in their country. One of their leaders enlisted aid in 
Buffalo, and seized a Canadian island in the Niagara River. The steamer Caro- 
line was then I'un between this island and the New York shore, carrying over 
visitors, and, it was claimed, guns and 'supplies. This was unlawful, and one 
night in December, 1837, a force of Canadian government troops rowed over to 
the New Yoi'k shore, boarded the Carol ine, and destroyed her ; it was a dis- 
puted question whether she was burned and sunk, or whether she was set afire 
and sent over the Palls. The whole border from Vermont to Michigan became 
greatly excited over this invasion of our territory. Men volunteered in the 
" Patriot " cause, supplies and money were contributed, guns were taken from 
government arsenals, and raids were made into Canada. Van Buren sent Gen- 
eral Scott to the frontier, did what he could to preserve peace and neutrality, and 
thus made himself unpopular in the border states. There was also danger of war 
over the disputed northern boundary of Maine. State troops were sent to the 



298 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

The Log-Cabin Campaign. — The Whigs in their national 
convention nominated William Henry Harrison and John 
Tyler. The Democrats renominated Van Buren, but named 
no one for the vice presidency. Tlie antislavery people, in 
hopes of drawing off from the Whig and Democratic 
parties those who were opposed to slavery, and so making 
a new party, nominated James G. Birne}^ 

The Whig convention did not adopt a platform, but an 
ill-timed sneer at Harrison furnished just what they needed. 
He would, a Democratic newspaper said, be more at home 
in a log cabin drinking cider than living in the White 
House as President. The Whigs hailed this sneer as an insult 
to the millions of Americans who then lived, or had once lived, 
or whose parents had dwelt in log cabins, and made the cabin 
the emblem of their party. Log cabins were erected in every 
city, town, and village as Whig headquarters ; were mounted 
on wheels, were drawn from place to place, and lived in by 
Whig stump speakers. Great mass meetings were held, and 
the whole campaign became one of frolic, song, and torchlight 
processions.! The people wanted a change. Harrison was an 
ideal popular candidate, and " Tippecanoe ^ and Tyler too " and 
a Whig Congress were elected. 

Death of Harrison; Tyler President (1841). — As soon as 
Harrison was inaugurated, a special session of Congress was 

territory in dispute, along the Aroostook River (18.39 ; map, p. 31()) ; but Van 
Buren made an unpopular agreement with the British minister, whereby the 
troops were witiidrawn and both sides agreed not to use force. 

1 In the West, men came to these meetings in huge canoes and wagons of 
all sorts, and camped on the ground. At one meeting the ground covered by 
the people was measured, and allowing four to the square yard it was estimated 
about 80,000 attended. Dayton, in Ohio, claimed 100,000 at her meeting. At 
Bunker Hill there were 00,000. In the processions, huge balls were rolled along 
to the cry, " Keep ths ball a-rolling." Every log cabin had a barrel of hard cider 
and a gourd drinking cup near it. On the walls were coon skins, and the latch- 
string was always hanging out. More than a hundred campaign songs were 
written and sung to popular airs. Every Whig wore a log-cabin medal, or breast- 
pin, or badge, or carried a log-cabin cane. Kead McMaster's History of the 
People of the U. S., Vol. VI. pp. 550-588. 

' The battle fought in 1811, meaning Harrison, the victor in that battle. See 
note on p. 254. 



POLITICS FROM 1829 TO 1841 299 

called to undo the work of tlie Democrats. But one month 
after inauguration day Harrison died, and when Congress 
assembled, Tyler ^ was President. 

1 John Tyler was born in Virginia in 1790 and died in 1802. At twenty-one 
he was elected to the legislature of Virginia, was elected to the House of Kei^re- 
sentatives in 1821, and favored the admission of Missouri as a slave state. In 
1825 he became governor of Virginia, and in 1827 was elected to the United 
States Senate. There he opposed the tariff and internal improvements, sup- 
ported Jackson, but condemned his proclamation to the nuUifiers, voted for the 
censure of Jackson, and when instructed by Virginia to vote for expunging, re- 
fused and resigned from the Senate in 18;J0. 

SUMMARY 

1. The inauguration of Jackson was followed by the introduction of 
the "spoils system" into national politics. 

2. The question of nullification was debated in the Senate by Webster 
and Hayne. Under Calhoun's leadership, South Carolina nullified the tariff 
of 1832. Jackson asked for a Force Act; but the dispute was settled by the 
Compromise of 1833. 

3. Jackson vigorously opposed the Rank of the United States, and after 
his reelection he ordered the removal of the government deposits. 

4. This period is notable in the history of political parties for (1) the 
introduction of the national nominating convention, (2) the rise of the Whig 
party, (3) the formation of tiie antislavery party. 

5. Slavery w^as now a national issue. An attempt was made to shut 
antislavery documents out of the mails, and antislavery petitions were shut 
out of the House of Representatives. 

6. Financially, Jackson's second term is notable for (1) the payment 
of the national debt, (2) the growth of a great surplus in the ti-easury, 
(3) the distribution of the surplus among the states. 

7. The manner of distributing the surj^lus revenue among the states 
interrupted a period of wild speculation and brought on the panic of 1837. 

8. Van Ruren, who succeeded Jackson as President, called a special ses- 
sion of Congress; and the fourth installment of the surplus was withheld. 

9. Financial distress, hard times, and general discontent led to a de- 
mand for a change; and the log-cabin, hard-cider campaign that followed 
ended w ith the election of Harrison (1840). 



CHAPTER XXIV 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO 1840 




Population. — When Harrison was elected in 18-iO, the popu- 
hitiuu of our country was 17,000,000, spread over twenty- 
six states and three 
territories. Of these 
millions several hun- 
dred thousand had 
come from the Old 
World. No records 
of such arrivals were 
kept before 1820 ; 
since that date care- 
ful records have been 

Settled area in 1840. ^ i ^ ,1 

^ macle, and from them 

it app3ars that between 1820 and 1840 about 750,000 immi- 
grants came to our shores. They were chiefly from Ireland, 
England, and Germany. ^ 

West of the mountains were over 6,000,000 people ; yet 
but two Western states, Arkansas (1836) and Michigan (1837), 
had been admitted to the Union since 1821; and but two new 
Western territories, Wisconsin and Iowa, had been organized. 
This meant that the Western states already admitted were filling 
up with })opulation.2 

The Public Lands. — The rise of new Western states brought 
u\) tiie troublesome question. What shall be done with the pub- 

1 In the early thirties much excitement was aroused by the arrival of hun- 
dreds of paupers sent over from England by the parishes to get rid of them. 
But when Congress investigated the matter, it was found not to be so bad as rep- 
resented, though a very serious evil. 

'■^ Life in the West at this period is well described in Eggleston's Hoosier 
Sclioolmaster and The Oraysons. 

300 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO 1840 301 




A public school of early times. 

lie lands ? ^ The Continental Congress had pledged the coun- 
try to sell the lands and use the money to pay the del)t of the 
United States. Much was sold for this purpose, but Congress 
set aside one thirty-sixth part of the public domain for the use 
of local schools. 2 As the Western states made fi'om the ])ublic 
domain had received land grants for scliools, many of the 
Eastern states about 1821 asked for grants in aid of their 
schools. The Western states objected, and both then and in 
later times asked that all the public lands within their borders 
be given to tliem or sold to them for a small sum. After 1824 

1 The credit system of selling lands (p. 241) was abolished in 1820, because 
a great many purchasers could not pay for what they bought. 

2 The public domain is laid off in townships six miles square. Each town- 
ship is subdivided into ;}G sections one mile square, and the sixteenth section in 
each township was set apart in 178-5 for the use of schools in the township. 
This provision was applied to new states erected from the public domain down 
to 1848 ; in states admitted after that time both the sixteenth and the thirty- 
sixth sections have been set apart for this purpose. In addition to this, before 
1821, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana had each 
received two entire townships for the use of colleges and academies. 



302 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

efforts were made by Benton and others to reduce the price of 
hind to actual settlers.^ But Congress did not adopt any of 
these measures. After 1830, when the public debt was nearly 
paid, Clay attempted to have the money derived from land 
sales distributed among all the states. The question what to 
do with the lands was discussed year after year. At last in 
1841 (while Tyler was President) Clay's bill became a law with 
the proviso that the money should not be distributed if tlie 
tariff rates were increased. The tariff rates were soon increased 
(1842), and but one distribution was made. 

The Indians. — Another result of the filling up of the coun- 
try was the crowding of the Indians from their lands. They 
had always been regarded as the rightful owners of the soil 
till their title should be extinguished by treaty. Many such 
treaties had been made, ceding certain areas but reserving 
otliers on which the whites were not to settle. But population 
moved westward so rapidly that it seemed best to set apart a 
region beyond the Mississippi and move all the Indians there 
as quickly as possible.'-^ In 1834, therefore, such a region, an 
"" Indian Country,'' was created in what was later called Indian 
Territory, and the work of removal began. 

In the South tliis proved a hard matter. In Georgia the 
Creeks and Cherokees refused for a while to go, and by so 
1 doing involved the federal government in serious trouble with 
\Georgia and with the Indians. In 1835 an attempt to move 
jthe Seminoles from Florida to the Indian Country caused a 
war which lasted seven years and cost millions of dollars.^ 

1 After the Indian title to land was extinguished, the land was surveyed and 
offered for sale at auction. Land which did not sell at auction could be pur- 
chased at private sale for $1.25 an acre. Benton proposed that land which did 
not sell at private sale within five years should be offered at 50 cents an acre, 
and if not sold, should be given to any one who would cultivate it for three years. 

^ An attempt to remove the Indians in northern Illinois and in Wisconsin 
led to the Black Hawk War in 1832. The Indians had agreed to go west, but 
when the settlers entered on their lands. Black Hawk induced the Sacs and 
Foxes to resist, and a short war was necessary to subdue them. 

2 The leader was Osceola, a chief of much ability, who perpetrated several 
massacres before he was captured. In 1837 he visited the camp of General 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO 1840 



303 



Internal Improvements. — Another issue with which the 
growth of the West had much to do was that of government 
aid to roads, canals, and railroads. Much money was spent 
on the Cumberland Road ; ^ but in 1817 Madison vetoed a bill 




The National Road. 

appropriating money to be divided among the states for in- 
ternal improvements, and from that time down to Van 
Buren's day the question of the right of Congress to use money 
for such purposes was constantly debated in Congress. ^ 

The States build Canals and Roads. — All this time popu- 
lation was increasing, the West was growing, interstate trade 
was developing, new towns and villages were springing uj), and 
farms increasing in number as the people moved to the new 
lands. The need of cheap transportation became greater and 
greater each year, and as Congress would do nothing, the states 
took upon themselves the work of building roads and canals. 

What a canal could do to open up a country was shown 
when the Erie Canal was finished in 1825 (see p. 273). So 

Jesup under a flag of truce, and was seized and sent to Fort Moultrie, near 
Charleston, where he died. His followers were beaten (18."37) in a hard-fought 
battle by Colonel Zachary Taylor, but kept up the war till 1842. 

1 When Ohio was admitted (p. 241), Congress promised to use a part of the 
money from the sale of land to build a road joining the Potomac and Ohio rivers. 
Work on the National Road, as it was called, was started in 1811. It began at 
Cumberland on the Potomac and reached the Ohio at Wheeling. But Ohio, 
Indiana, and Illinois demanded that the road be extended, and in time it was 
built through Columbus and Indianapolis to Vandalia. Thence it was to go to 
Jefferson City in Missouri ; but a dispute arose as to whether it should cross 
the Mississippi at Alton or at St. Louis, and work on it was stoijped. 

'■^ Jackson vetoed several bills for internal improvements, and the hostility 
of his party to such a use of government money was one of the grievances of 
the Whigs. 



304 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



many people by that time bad settled along its route, that tbe 
value of land and tbe wealtb of tbe state were greatly increased.^ 
Tbe mercbants of New York could tlien send tbeir goods up 
tbe Hudson, by tbe canal to Buffalo, and tben to Cleveland or 
Detroit, or by Cbautauqua Lake and tbe Allegheny to Pitts- 
burg, for about one tbird of wbat it cost before tbe canal was 
opened (maps, pp. 267, 279). Buffalo began to grow witb great 
rapidity, and in a few years its trade bad readied Chicago. In 
1839 eight steamboats plied between these two towns. 

A Trip on a Canal Packet. — Passengers traveled on the 
canal in packet bt)ats, as they were called. The hull of such 

a craft was eighty feet 
long and eleven feet wide, 
and carried on its deck a 
long, low bouse with flat 
roof and sloping sides. 
In each side were a dozen 
or more windows witb 
green blinds and red cur- 
tains. When tbe weather 
was fine, passengei's sat 
on the roof, reading, talk- 
ing, or sewing, till tlie 
man at tbe helm called 
"Low bridge!" when 
everybody would rush 
down tbe steps and into 
tbe cabin, to come forth once more when tbe bridge was passed. 
Walking on the roof when the packet was crowded was impos- 
sible. Those who wished such exercise had to take it on the 
towpatb. Three horses abreast could drag a- packet boat some 
four miles an hour. 

Western Routes. — Aroused by tbe success of the Erie 
Canal, Pennsylvania began a great highway from Philadelphia 

1 For a description of life in central New York, read My Ovm Story, by 
J. T. Trowbridge. 




Locks on the Erie Canal, Lockport, N.Y. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO IS-IU 



305 



to Pittsburg. As planned, it was to be part canal and part 
turnpike over the mountains. But before it was completed, 
railroads came into use, and when finished, it was part railroad, 
part canal. Not to be outdone by New York and Pennsylvania, 
the people of Baltimore began the construction (1828) of the 
Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, the first in the country for the 
carriage of passengers and freight. ^ Massachusetts, alarmed at 
the prospect of losing her trade with the West, appointed 
(1827) a commission and an engineer to select a route for a 
railroad to join Boston and Albany. Ohio had already com- 
menced a canal from Cleveland to the Ohio.^ 

Early Railroads. — The idea of a public railroad to carry 
freight and passengers was of slow growth,^ but once it was 

1 The first railroad in our country was used in 1807, at Boston, to carry- 
earth from a hilltop to grade a street. Others, only a few miles long, were soon 
used to carry stone and coal from quarry and mine to the wharf — in 1810 near 
Philadelphia, in 1826 at Quincy (a little south of Boston), in 1827 at Mauchchunk 
(Pennsylvania). All of these were private roads and carried no passengers. 

2 While the means of travel were improving, the inns and towns even along 
the great stage routes had not improved. '• When you alight at a country 
tavern," said a traveler, "it is 

ten to one you stand holding F "MT^^^'l^T^'^^^^ 

your horse, bawling for the " :«=»*^ r ^ . - 

hostler while the landlord looks 
on. Once inside the tavern 
every man, woman, and child 
plies you with questions. To 
get a dinner is the work of 
hours. At night you are put 
into a room with a dozen others 
and sleep two or three in a bed. 
In the morning you go outside 
to wash your face and then re- 
pair to the barroom to see your 
face in the only looking glass the tavern contains." Another traveler complains 
that at the best hotel in New York there was neither glass, mug, cup, nor car- 
pet, and but one miserable rag dignified by the name of towel. 

^ As early as 1814 John Stevens applied to New Jersey for a railroad char- 
ter, and when it was granted, he sought to persuade the New York Canal Com- 
mission to build a railroad instead of a canal. In 1823 Pennsylvania granted 
Stevens and his friends a charter to build a railroad from Philadelphia to the 
Susquehanna. In 1825 Stevens built a circular road at Hoboken and used a 
steam locomotive to show the possibility of such a means of locomotion. But 
all these schemes were ahead of the times. 




Mansion House. 39 Broadway, New York, in 1831. 



306 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



started more and more miles were built every year, till by 1835 
twenty-two railroads were in operation. The longest of them 
was only one hundred and thirty-six miles long; it extended 
from Charleston westward to the Savannah River, opposite 
Augusta. These early railroads were made of wooden beams 
resting on stone blocks set in the ground. The upper surface 
of the beams, where the wheels rested, was protected by long 
strips or straps of iron spiked to the beam. The spikes often 
worked loose, and, as the car passed over, the strap would curl 
up and come through the bottom of the car, making what was 
called a "snake head." 




Pinntiil hy E. L. Henry. 



Copyrhjlit, 1901,, by C. Ktackner. 



An early railroad. 



What should be the motive power, was a troublesome ques- 
tion. The horse was the favorite; it sometimes pulled the car, 
and sometimes walked on a treadmill on the car. Sails were 
tried also, and finally locomotives.^ 

Locomotives could not climb steep grades. When a hill 
was met with, the road had to go around it, or if this was not 
possible, the engine had to be taken off and the cars pulled up 

1 The friends of canals bitterly opposed railroads as impractical. Snow, it 
was said, would block them for weeks. If locomotives were used, the sparks 
would make it impossible to carry hay or other things combustible. The boilers 
would blow up as they did on steamboats. Canals were therefore safer and 
cheaper. Head McMaster's Historn of the People of the U.S., Vol. VI, pp. 87-89. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM ]820 TO 1840 



307 



To Pittsburg 




BY THE 



or let down an inclined plane by means of a rope and stationary 
engine.^ 

A Trip on an Early Railroad. — A traveler from Philadel- 
pliia to Pittsburg, in 183(3, would set off about five o'clock 
in the morning for what was called the depot. There his bag- 
gage would be piled on the roof of a car, which was drawn by 
horses to the foot of an inclined plane on the bank of the 
Schuylkill. Uj) this 
incline the car would 
be drawn by a station- 
ary engine and rope 
to the top of the river 
bank. When all the 
cars of the train had 
been pulled up in this 
way, they would be 
coupled together and 
made fast to a little 
jDufting, wheezing lo- 
comotive without cab 
or brake, whose tall 
smokestack sent forth 
volumes of woo d 
smoke and red-hot 
cinders. At Lancas- 
ter (map, p. 267) the 
railroad ended, and 
passengers went by 
stage to Columbia on the Susquehanna, and then by canal 
packet up that river and up the Juniata to the railroad at the 
foot of the mountains. 

1 Almost all the early roads used this device. There was one such inclined 
plane at Albany ; another at Belmont, now in Philadelphia ; a third on the 
Paterson and Hudson Railroad near Paterson ; and a fourth on the Baltimore 
and Ohio. When Pennsylvania built her railroad over the Allegheny Mountains, 
many such planes were necessary, so that the Portage Railroad, as it was called, 
was a wonder of engineering skill. 



RAIL ROAD CARS 

THE WESTERN TRAI^SPORTATIO.X COMPANY 

(t.EECH. HOB^HTS If TOi^JrO'S LMJTEI 



HARRISBUBC. 
LEWI^TOWK. 
HOl.lD«tSBDRC, 
PITTSBIIBC 



Handbill of a Philadelphia transportation 
company, of 1835. 



308 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



The mountains were crossed by the Portage Railroad, a 
series of inclined planes and levels somewhat like a flight of 
steps. At Johnstown, west of the Alleghenies, the traveler 
once more took a canal packet to Pittsburg. ^ 

The West builds Railroads and Canals. — Prior to 1836 most 
of the railroads and canals were in the East. But in 183(3 the 
craze for internal improvements raged in Indiana, Illinois, and 
Micliigan, and in each an elaborate system of railroads and 
canals was planned, to be built by the state. Illinois in this 
way contracted a debt of 115,000,000 ; Indiana, $10,000,000, 
and Michigan, $5,000,000. 

But scarcely was work begun on the canals and railroads 
when the panic of 1837 came, and the states were left with 
heavy debts and unfinished public works that could not pay 
the cost of operating them. Some defaulted in the payment 
of interest, and one even repudiated her bonds which she had 
issued and sold to establisli a great bank. 

The Mails. — As tlie means of transportation improved, the 
mails were carried more rapidly, and into more distant parts of 

the country. By 1837 it was pos- 
sible to send a letter from New 
York to Washington in one day, 
to New Orleans in less than 
seven days, to St. Louis in less 
than five days, and to Buffalo in 
three daj^s ; and after 1838 mail 
was carried by steamships to Eng- 
land in a little over two weeks. 

Ocean Steamships. — In the 
month of May, 1819, the steam- 
ship Savannali left the city of 
that name for Liverpool, Eng- 




The Savannah. 



1 The state built the railroads, like the canals, as highways open to every- 
body. At first no cars or motive power, except at the inclined planes, were 
supplied. Any car owner could carry passengers or freight who paid the state 
two cents a mile for each passenger and $4.92 for each car sent over the rails. 
After 1836 the state provided locomotives and charged for hauling cars. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO 1840 309 

land, and reached it in twenty-five days, using steam most of 
the way. She was a side-wheeler with paddle wheels so ar- 
ranged that in stormy weather they could be taken in on deck.^ 

No other steamships crossed the Atlantic till 1838, when 
the Sirius reached New York in eighteen days, and the 
Great Western in sixteen days from England. Otliers fol- 
lowed, in 1839 the Cunard line was founded, and regular steam 
navigation of the Atlantic was established. 

Express. — Better means of communication made possi- 
ble another convenience, of which W. F. Harnden was the 
originator. He began in 1839 to carry pack- /?^=^ 

ages, bundles, money, and small boxes be- ^ X — ^ 
tAveen New York and Boston, traveling by 
steamboat and railroad. At first two carpet- 
bags held all he had to carry; but his business 
increased so rapidly that in 1840 P. B. Burke 
and Alvin Adams started a rival concern 
which became the Adams Express Company. 

Mechanical Development. — The greater 
use of the steamboat, the building of rail- Carpetbag, 

roads, and the introduction of the steam locomotive, were but a 
few signs of the marvelous industrial and mechanical develop- 
ment of the times. The growth and extent of the country, 
the opportunities for doing business on a great scale, led to a 
demand for time-saving and labor-saving machinery. 

One of the characteristics of the period 1820-40, there- 
fore, is the invention and introduction of such machinery. 
Boards were now planed, and bricks pressed, by machine. It 
was during this period that the farmers began to give up the 
flail for the thrashing machine ; that paper was extensively 

1 The captain of a schooner, seeing her smoke, thought she was a ship on 
fire and started for her, "but found she went faster with fire and smoke 
than we possibly could with all sails set. It was then that we discovered that 
what we supposed a vessel on fire was nothing less than a steamboat crossing 
the Western Ocean." In June, when off the coast of Ireland, she was again 
mistaken for a ship on fire, and one of the king's revenue cutters was sent to 
her relief and chased her for a xiay. 

M'M. BRIEF — 19 




310 



DEVELOPMExNT OF THE UNION 



made from straw ; that Fairbanks invented the platform scales ; 
that Colt invented the revolver ; that steel pens were made by 
machine ; and that a rude form of friction match was intro- 
duced. ^ 

Anthracite coal was now in use in the large towns and 
cities, and. grate and coal stoves were displacing open fires and 
wood stoves, just as gas was displacing candles and lamps. 

The Cities and Towns. — The increase of manufacturing in 
the northeastern part of the country caused the rise of large 
towns given up almost exclusively to mills and factories and 
the homes of workmen. ^ The increase of business, trade, and 
commerce, and the arrival of thousands of immigrants each year, 
led to a rapid growth of population in the seaports and chief 
cities of the interior. Tliis produced many changes in city 
life. The dingy oil lamps in the streets, lighted only when 
the moon did not shine, were giving way to gas lights. The con- 
stable and the night watch- 
man with his rattle were 



being replaced by the police- 
man. Such had been the in- 
crease in population and area 
of the chief cities, that some 
means of cheap transporta- 
tion about the streets was needed, and in 1830 a line of 
omnibuses was started in New York city. So well did it suc- 
ceed that other lines were started ; and three years later omni- 
buses were used in Philadelphia. 




New York omnibus, 1830. 

From a print of tlie time. 



1 A common form was known as the loco-foco. In 1835 the Democratic 
party in New York city was split into two factions, and on the night for the 
nomination of candidates for office one faction got possession of the hall by using 
a back door. But the men of the other faction drove it from the room and 
were proceeding to make their nominations when the gas was cut off. For 
this the leaders were pi'epared, and taking candles out of their pockets lit them 
with loco-foco matches. The next morning a newspaper called them " Loco- 
Focos," and in time the name was applied to a wing of the Democratic party. 

■^ Good descriptions of life in New England are Lucy Larcom's Neio England 
Girlhood; T. B. Aldrich's Story of a Bad Boy ; and E. E. Hale's JVew England 
Boyhood. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO 1840 311 

The Workingman. — The growth of manufactures and the 
buikling of works of internal improvement produced a demand 
for workmen of all sorts, and thousands came over, or were 
brought over, from the Old World. The unskilled were em- 
ployed on the railroads and canals ; the skilled in the mills, 
factories, and machine shops. 

As workingmen increased in number, trades unions were 
formed, and efforts were made to secure better wages and a 
sliorter working day. In this they succeeded : after a long 
series of strikes in 1834 and 1835 tlie ten-hour day was adopted 
in Philadelphia and Baltimore, and in 1810, l)y order of Presi- 
tlent Van Buren, went into force "• in all public establishments " 
under the federal government. 

The South. — No such labor issues troubled the southern 
half of the country. There the laborer was owned by the man 
whose lands he cultivated, and strikes, lockouts, questions of 
wages, and questions of hours were unknown. The mills, fac- 
tories, machine shops, the many diversified industries of the 
Northern states were unknown. In the great belt of states 
from North Carolina to the Texas border, the chief crop was 
cotton. These states thus had two common Ijonds of union: 
the maintenance of the institution of negro slavery, and the 
development of a common industry. As the people of the free 
states developed different sorts of industry, they became less 
and less like the people of the South, and in time the two 
sections were industrially two separate communities. The in- 
terests of the people being different, their opinions on great 
national issues were different and sectional. 

Reforms. — As we have seen, a great antislavery agitation 
(p. 293) occurred during the period 1820-10. It was only 
one of many reform movements of the time. State after state 
abolished imprisonment for debt,i lessened the severity of laws 
for the punishment of crime, extended the franchise,^ or right 

1 Read Whittier's Prit^oner />>)• Dcht. 

2 In Rhode Island many efforts to have the franchise extended came to 
naught. The old colonial charter was still in force, and under it no man could 



312 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

to vote, reformed the discipline of prisons, and established hos- 
pitals and asylums. So eager were the people to reform any- 
thing that seemed to be wrong, that they sometimes went to 
extremes. 1 The antimasonic movement (p. 292) was such a 
movement for reform ; the Owenite movement was another, 
Sylvester Graham preaching reform in diet, Mrs. Bloomer advo- 
cating reform in woman's dress, and Joseph Smith, who founded 
Mormonisra, were but so many advocates of reform of some sort. 

Owen believed that poverty came from individual owner- 
ship, and the accumulation of more money by one man than 
by another. He believed that people should live in com- 
munities in which everything — lands, liouses, cattle, products 
of the soil — are owned by tlie community; that the individual 
should do his work, but be fed, housed, clothed, educated, 
and amused by the community. Owen's teachings were well 
received, and Owenite communities were founded in many 
places in the West and in New York, only to end in failure. ^ 

Mormonism had better fortune. Joseph Smith, its founder, 
published in 1830 the Book of Mormon, as an addition to the 

vote unless he owned real estate worth $134 or renting for .$7 a year, or 
was the eldest son of such a "freeman." After the Whig victory In 1840, how- 
ever, a people's party was organized, and adopted a state constitution which 
extended the franchise, and under which Thomas W. Uorr was elected governor. 
Dorr attempted to seize the state property by force, and establish his govern- 
ment; but his party and his state officials deserted him, and he was arrested, 
tried, found guilty of treason, and sentenced to life imprisonment. He was 
finally pardoned, and in 1842 a state constitution was regularly adopted, and the 
old charter abandoned. 

1 In New York many people were demanding a reform in land tenure. One 
of the great patroonships granted by the Dutch West India Company (p. 72) still 
remained in the Van Rensselaer family. The farmers on this vast estate paid 
rent in produce. When the patroon, Stephen Van Rensselaer, died in 1830, the 
heir attempted to collect some overdue rents; but the farmers a.ssembled, drove 
off the sheriff, and so compelled the government to send militia to aid the sheriff. 
The Anti-rent War thus started dragged on till 1846, during which time riots, 
outrages, some murders, and much disorder took place. Again and again the 
militia were called out. In the end the farmers were allowed to buy their 
farms, and the old leasehold sy.stem was destroyed. Cooper's novels The Red- 
skins, The Chninhearer, and Satanstoe relate to these troubles. So also does 
Ruth Hall's Downrenter'' s Son. 

•^ Read McMaster's History of the People of the U.S., Vol. V, pp. 90-97. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO 1840 313 



Bible. 1 A church was next organized, missionaries were sent 
about the country, and in 1831 the sect moved to Kirtland in 
Ohio, and there built a temple. Trouble with other sects and 
with the people forced them to move again, and they went to 
Missouri. But there, too, they came in conflict with the people, 
were driven from one county to another, and in 1839-40 were 
driven from the state by force of arms. A refuge was then 
found in Illinois, where, on the banks of the Mississi])pi, they 
founded the town of Nauvoo. In spite of their wanderings they 
had increased in number, and were a prosperous community.^ 

The Great West Explored. — During the twenty years since 
Major Long's expedition, the countr}' beyond the Missouri had 
been more fully explored. 
In 1822 bands of merchants 
at St. Louis began to trade 
with Santa Fe, sending their 
o-oods on the backs of mules 
and in wagons, thus opening 
up what was known as the 
Santa ¥e trail. One year 
later a trapper named Prevost 
found the South Pass over 
the Rocky Mountains, and 

entered the Great Salt Lake country.^ This was the beginning, 
and year after year bands of trappers wandered over what was 
then Mexican territory but is now part of our country, from 




Pack arimi s. 



1 Joseph Smith asserted that in a vision the angel of the Lord told him to 
dig under a stone on a certain liill near Palmyra, New York, and that on doing 
so he found plates of gold inscribed with unknown characters, and two stones 
or crystals, on looking through which he was enabled to translate the characters. 

2 Read McMaster's History of the People of the U. S., Yol. YI, pp. 102-107 ; 
454-458. 

3 In 1824 W. H. Ashley led a party from St. Louis up the Platte River, 
over the mountains, and well down the Green Eiver, and home by Great 
Salt Lake, the South Pass, the Big Horn, the Yellowstone, and the Missouri. 
In 182G Ashley and a party went through the South Pass, dragging a six-pound 
cannon, the first wheeled vehicle known to have crossed the mountains north of 
the Santa Fe trail. The cannon was put in a trading post on Utah Lake. 



314 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 



T'j '^ BRITISH POS S7^ S /, S'wl O N S jj^ 




SC«LE OF MILES 

5 i5o Sou S)u 



The Far West in 1840. 

the Great Salt Lake to the lower Colorado River, and from the 
Rocky INIountains to the Pacific. ^ 

1 In 1820 Jedediah Siiiith with fifteen trappers went from near the Great Salt 
Lake to the lower Colorado River, crossed to San Diego, and went up California 
and over tlie Sierra Nevada to Great Salt Lake. In 1827, with another party. 
Smith went over the same ground to the lower Colorado, where the Indians killed 
ten of his men and stole his property. With two companions Smith walked to San 
Jose, where the Mexicans seized him. At Monterey (mon-te-ra') an American 
ship captain secured his release, and with a new band of followers Smith went to 
a fork of the Sacramento River. While Smith and his party were in Oregon in 
1828, the Indians massacred all but five of them. The rest fled and Smith went 
on alone to Fort Vancouver, a British fur-trading post on the Columbia River. 
■..Up this river Smith went (in the spring of 1829) to the mountains, turned south- 
ward, and in August, near the head waters of the Snake River, met two of his 
partners. Together they crossed the mountains to the source of the Big Horn, 
and then one went on to St. Louis. Early in 18.30 he returned with eighty-two 
men and ten wagons. This was the first wagon train on the Oregon trail. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1820 TO 1840 315 

Between 1830 and 1832 Hall J. Kelley attempted to found 
a colony in Oregon, but failed, as did another leader, Nathaniel 
J. Wyeth.i Wyeth tried again in 1834, but his settlements 
were not permanent. A few fur traders and missionaries to 
the Indians had better fortune ; but in 1840 most of the white 
men in the Oregon country were British fur traders. It was 
not till 1842 that the tide of American migration began to set 
strongly toward Oregon ; but within a few years after that 
time the Americans there greatly outnumbered the British. 

1 Wyeth had joined Kelley 's party ; but finding that it would not start for 
some time, he witlidrew, and organized a company to trade in Oiegon, and early 
in 1832, with twenty-nine companions, left Boston, went to St. Louis, joined a band 
of trappers of the Rocky Mountain Fur Company, and went with them to a great 
Indian fair on the upper waters of the Snake River. There some of his com- 
panions deserted him, as others had done along the way. With the rest Wyeth 
reached Fort Vancouver, where the company went to pieces, and in 1833 Wyeth 
returned to Boston. 

SUMMARY 

1. In 1840 the population of the country was 17,000,000, of whom more 
than a third dwelt west of the Allegheny Mountains. 

2. For twenty years there had been much discussion about tlie dispo- 
sition of the public lands ; but Congress did not give up the plan of selling 
them for the benefit of the United States. 

3. As population increased, the Indians were pushed further and 
further west. Some went to the Indian Country peaceably. In Georgia and 
Florida they resisted. 

4. As Congress would not sanction a general system of federal improve- 
ments, the states built canals and railroads for themselves. 

.5. The success of those in the East encouraged the AYestern states to 
undertake like improvements. But they plunged the states into debt. 

6. The period was one of great mechanical development, and many 
inventions of world-wide use date from this time. 

7. The growth of manufactures produced great manufacturing towns, 
and the increase of artisans and mechanics led to the formation of trades 
unions. 

8. The unrest caused by the rapid development of the country invited 
reforms of all sorts, and many — social, industrial, and political — were 
attempted. 



CHAPTER XXV 



MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED 



Tyler and the Whigs quarrel. — When Congress (in May, 
1841) first met in Tyler's term, Clay led the Whigs in propos- 
ing measures to carry out their party principles. But Tyler 
vetoed their bill establishing a new national bank. The Whigs 

then made some changes to suit, 
as they supposed, his objections, 
and sent him a bill to charter a 
Fiscal Corporation ; but this also 
came back with a veto ; where- 
upon his Cabinet officers (all save 
Daniel Webster, Secretary of 
State) resigned, and the Whig 
members of Congress, in an ad- 
dress to the people, read him out 
of the party. Later in his term 
Tyler vetoed two tariff bills, but 
finall}^ approved a third, known 
The disputed Maine boundary. ^^g ^he Tariff of 1842. For these 

uses of the veto power the Whigs thought of impeaching him ; 
but did not. 

Webster-Ashburton Treaty. — When Tyler's cabinet officers 
resigned, Webster remained in order to conclude a new treaty 
with Great Britain,^ by which our present northeastern 

1 Besides the long-standing dispute over the Maine boundary, two other 
matters were possible causes of war with Great Britain. (1) Her cruisers had 
been searching our vessels* off the African coast to see if they were slavers. 
(2) In the attack on the Caroline (p. 297) one American was killed, and in 1840 
a Canadian, Alexander McLeod, was arrested in New York and charged with 
the murder. Great Britain now avowed responsibility for the burning of the 
CarnJiiiP, and demanded that the man should be released. McLeod, however, 
was tried and acquitted. 

316 




MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED 317 

boundary was fixed from the St. Croix to the St. Lawrence. 
Neither power obtained all the territory it claimed under tlie 
treaty of 1783, but the disputed region was divided about 
equally between them.^ 

Soon after the treaty was concluded Webster resigned the 
secretarysliip of state, and the rupture between Tyler and the 
Whigs was complete. 

The Republic of Texas. — The great event of Tyler's time 
was the decision to annex the republic of Texas. 

In 1821 Mexico secured her independence of Spain, and 
about three years afterward adopted tlie policy of granting a 
great tract of land in Texas 
to anybody who, under cer- 
tain conditions, and within a 
certain time, would settle a 
specified number of families 
on the grant. To colonize in 
this way at once became popu- 
lar in the South, and in a few 
years thousands of American 
citizens were settled in Texas. 
For a while all went well ; but in 1833 serious trouble began 
between the Mexican government and the Texans, who in 1836 
declared their independence, founded the republic of Texas,^ 

1 Two other provisions of the treaty were of especial importance. (1) In 
order to stop the slave trade each nation was to keep a squadron (carrying 
at least eighty guns) cruising off the coast of Africa. (2) It was agreed that 
any person who, charged with the crime of murder, piracy, arson, robbery, or 
forgery, committed in either country, shall escape to the other, shall if possible 
be seized and given up to the authorities of the country which he fled. 

2 A war between Mexico and Texas followed, and was carried on with great 
cruelty by the Mexicans. Santa Anna, the president of Mexico, having driven 
some Texans into a building called the Alamo (ah'la-mo), in San Antonio, car- 
ried it by storm and ordered all of its defenders shot. A band of Texans who 
surrendered at Goliad met the same fate. In 1836, however. General Samuel 
Houston (hu'stun) beat the Mexicans in the decisive battle of San Jacinto. The 
struggle of the Texans for independence aroused sympathy in our country; hun- 
dreds of volunteers joined their army, and money, arms, and ammunition were 
sent them. Read A. E. Barr's novel Hemember the Alamo. 




The Alamo. 



318 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 




The War with Mexico. 

and sought admission into our Union as a state. Neither Jackson 
nor Van Buren favored annexation, so the question dragged on 
till 1844, when Tyler made with Texas a treaty of annexation 
and sent it to the Senate. That body refused assent. 

The Democrats and Texas. — The issue was thus forced. 
The Democratic national convention of 1844 claimed that 
Texas liad once been ours,^ and declared for its "reannexation." 
To please the Northern Democrats it also declared for the 



1 Keferring to our claim between 1803 and 1819 (p. 276) that the Louisiana 
Purchase extended west to the Rio Grande. 



MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED 319 

" reoccupation " of Oregon up to 54° 40'. This meant that 
we should compel Great Britain to abandon all claim to that 
country, and make it all American soil. 

The Democrats went into tlie campaign with the popular 
cries, "The reannexation of Texas; " "The whole of Oregon or 
none;" "Texas or disunion" — and elected Polk ^ after a close 
contest. 

Texas Annexed ; Oregon Divided. — Tyler, regarding the 
triumph of tlie Democrats as an instruction from the people to 
annex Texas, urged Congress to do so at once, and in March, 
1845, a resolution for the admission of Texas passed both 
houses, and was signed by the President. ^ The resolution pro- 
vided also that out of her territory four additional states might 
be made if Texas should consent. The boundaries were in dis- 
pute, but in the end Texas was held to have included all the 
territory from the boundary of the United States to the Rio 
Grande and a line extending due north from its source. 

After Texas was annexed, notice was served on Great 
Britain that joint occupation of Oregon must end in one year. 
The British minister then j^roposed a boundary treaty which 
was concluded in a few weeks (1846). The line agreed on was 
the 49th parallel from the Rocky Mountains to the Strait of 
Juan de Fuca (hoo-ahn' da foo'ca), and by it to the Pacific 
Ocean (compare maps, pp. 278 and 330). 

War with Mexico. — Mexico claimed that the real boundary 
of Texas was the Nueces (nwa'sess) River. When, therefore, 

1 James K. Polk was born in North Carolina in 1795, but went with his 
parents to Tennessee in 1800, where in 1823 he became a member of the legisla- 
ture. From 1824 to 1839 he was a member of Congress, and in 1839 was elected 
governor of Tennessee. Polk was the first presidential "dark horse "; that is, 
the first candidate whose nomination was unexpected and a surprise. In the 
Democratic national convention at Baltimore the contest was at first between Van 
Buren and Cass. Polk's name did not appear till the eighth ballot ; on the 
ninth the convention "stampeded" and Polk received every vote. When the 
news was spread over the country by means of railroads and stagecoaches, many 
people would not believe it till confirmed by the newspapers. The Whigs nomi- 
nated Henry Clay ; and the Liberty party, James G. Birney. Tyler also was 
renominated by his friends, but withdrew. 

2 Read Whittier's Texas. 



320 DEVELOPMENT OF THE UNION 

Polk (in 1846) sent General Zachary Taylor with an army to 
the Rio Grande, the Mexicans attacked him ; but he beat them 
at Palo Alto (pah'lo ahl'to) and again near by at Resaca de la 
Palma (ra-sah'ca da lah pahl'ma), and drove them across the 
Rio Grande. When President Polk heard of the first attack^ 
he declared that " Mexico has shed American blood upon 
American soil. . . . War exists, . . . and exists by the act 
of Mexico herself." Congress promptly voted men and money 
for the war. 

Monterey. — Taylor, having crossed the Rio Grande, marched 
to Monterey and (September, 1846) attacked the city. It 
was fortified with strong stone walls in the fashion of Old 
World cities ; the flat-roofed houses bristled witli guns ; and 
across every street was a barricade. In three days of des- 
perate fighting our troops forced their way into the city, entered 
the buildings, made their way from house to house by breaking 
through the walls or ascending to the roofs, and reached the 
center of the city before the Mexicans surrendered the town. 

New Mexico and California. — Immediately after the decla- 
ration of war. Colonel Stephen W. Kearny with a force of 
men set off (June, 1846) by the old Santa Fe trail and 
(August 18) captured Santa Fe without a struggle, establislied 
a civil government, declared New Mexico annexed to the 
United States, and then started to take possession of California. 
But California had already been conquered by the Americans. 
In June, 1846, some three hundred American settlers, believing 
that war was imminent and fearing they would be attacked, 
revolted, adopted a flag on which was a grizzly bear, and 
declared California an independent republic. Fremont, who 
had been exploring in California, came to their aid (July 5), 
and two days later Commodore Sloat with a naval force 
entered Monterey and raised the flag there. In 1847 (January 
8, 9) battles were fought with the Mexicans of California ; but 
the Americans held the country. 

Buena Vista. — Toward the close of 1846 General Winfield 
Scott was put in command of the army in Mexico, and ordered 



MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED 



321 



Taylor to send a large part of the army to meet him at Vera 
Cruz (va'ra kroos). Santa Anna, hearing of this, gathered 
18,000 men and at Buena Vista, in a narrow valley at the foot 
of the mountains, attacked Taylor (February 23, 1847). The 




General Taylor at Buena Vista. From au old print. 

battle raged from morning to niglit. Again and again the 
little American army of 5000 seemed certain to be overcome by 
tlie 18,000 Mexicans. But they fought on desperately, and 
when night came, both armies left the field. ^ 

The March to Mexico. — Scott landed at Vera Cruz in March, 
1847, took the castle and city after a siege of fifteen days, and 



1 In the course of the fight a sou of Henry Clay was killed, and Jefferson 
Davis, afterward President of the Confederate States of America, was wounded. 
At one stage of the battle Lieutenant Crjttenden was sent to demand the 
surrender of a Mexican force tliat had been cut off ; but the Mexican officer in 
command sent him blindfolded to Santa Anna. Crittenden thereupon demanded 
the surrender of the entire Mexican army, and when told that Taylor nuist 
surrender in an hour or have his army destroyed, replied, "General Taylor 
never surrenders.'" Read Whitiiev's Angels of Buena Vista. 



322 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 




about a week later set off for tlie city of Mexico, winning 
victory after victory on the way. The heights of Cerro Gordo 
were taken by storm, and the arni}^ of Santa Anna was beaten 
again at Jahipa (ha-hili'pa). Puebha (pwa'bla) surrendered 
at Scott's approach, and there he waited three months. Hut 
on August 7 Scott again started westward with 10,000 men, 
and three days later looked down on the distant city of Mexico 
surrounded by broad plains and snow-capped mountains. 

Then followed in quick 
succession the victory at 
Contreras (kon-tra'ras), the 
storming of the heights of 
Churubusco, the victory at 
Molino del Rey (mo-lee' no 
del ra/) the storming of the 
castle of Chapulteijec' perched 
on a lofty rock, and the 
triumphal entry into Mexico 
(September 14). ^ 
- The republic of Mexico was 
now a conquered nation and might have been added to our 
domain ; but the victors were content to retain Upper Califor- 
nia and New Mexico — the region from the Rio Grande to the 
Pacilic, and from the Gila River to Oregon (compare maps, 
pp. 318, 330). For this great territory we paid Mexico 
il5,000,000, and in addition paid some 13,500,000 of claims our 
citizens had against her for injury to their persons or property. ^ 

1 The war was bitterly opposed by the antislavery people of the North as 
an attempt to gain more slave territory. Numbers of pamphlets were written 
against it. Lincoln, then a member of Congress, introduced resolutions asking 
the President to state on what spot on American soil blood had been shed by 
Mexican troops, and James Russell Lowell wrote his famous Biylow Papers. 

2 Five years later (1853), by another treaty with Mexico, negotiated by James 
Gadsden, we acquired a comparatively small tract south of the Gila, called the 
Gadsden Purchase (compare maps, pp. 330, 352). The price was $10,000,000. 
The purchase was made largely because Congress was then considering the 
building of a railroad to the Pacific, and because the route likely to be chosen 
went south of the Gila. 



Cathedral, Mexico. 



The Terms of Peace (1848). 



MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED 



323 






Shall the Newly Acquired Territory be Slave Soil or Free ? — 

The treaty with Mexico having been ratified and the territory 
acquired, it became the duty of Congress 
to provide the people with some American 
form of government. There needed to be 
American governors, courts, legislatures, 
customhouses, revenue laws, in short a 
complete change from the Mexican way of 
governing. To do this would have been 
easy if it had not been for the fact that (in 
1827) Mexico had abolished slavery. All 
the territory acquired was therefore free 
soil; but the South wished to make it slave 
soil. The question of the hour thus be- 
came. Shall New Mexico and California 
be slave soil or free soil ? ^ 

The Presidential Campaign of 1848. — 
So troublesome was the issue that the two 
great parties tried to keep it out of politics. 
The Democrats in their platform in 1848 
said nothing about slavery in the new territory, and the Whigs 
made no platform. 

Tliis action of the two parties so displeased the antislavery 
Whigs and Wilmot Proviso Democrats that they held a con- 
vention, formed the Free-soil party,^ nominated Martin Van 

1 As early as 184G the North attempted to decide the question in favor of 
freedom. Polk had asked for $2, 000, 000 with which to settle the boundary 
dispute with Mexico, and when the bill to appropriate the money was before the 
House, David Wilmot moved to add the proviso that all territory bought with 
it should be free soil. The House passed the Wilmot Proviso, but the Senate did 
not ; so the bill failed. The following year (1847) a bill to give Polk $8,000,000 
was introduced, and again the proviso was added by the House and rejected by 
the Senate. Then the House gave way, and passed the bill ; but the acquisi- 
tion of California and New Mexico by treaty left the question still unsettled. 

'- Their platform declared : (1) that Congress has no more power to make a 
slave than to make a king ; (2) that there must be " free soil for a free people "; 

(3) that there must be "no more slave states, no more slave territories"; 

(4) that "we inscribe on our banner, 'Free soil, free speech, free labor, and 
free men.' " 



Monument on Mexican 
boundary. 



324 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



Buren for President, and drew away so many New York 
Democrats from their party that the Whigs carried the 




TAYiORi Fillmore. abolition 



N«LE 5«M — ,^-_ CASS* BOTLtR 



Democratic cartoon in campaign of 1848. 

state and won tlie presidential election. ^ On March 5, 1849 

(March 4 was Sunday), Taylor ^ and Fillmore ^ were inaugurated. 

Gold in California. — By this time the question of slavery in 

the new territory was still more complicated by the discovery 

1 The Liberty party nominated John P. Hale of New Hampshire, but lie 
withdrew in favor of Van Buren. The Liberty party was thus merged in the 
Free-soil party, and so disappeared from politics. The Democratic candidates 
for President and Vice-President were Lewis Cass and William O. Butler. 

- Zachary Taylor was born in Virginia in 1784, was taken to Louisville, Ken- 
tucky, while still a child, and grew up there. In 1808 he entered the United 
States army as a lieutenant, and by 1810 had risen to be a captain. For a valiant 
defense of Fort Harrison on the Wabash, he was made a major. He further 
distinguished himself in the Black Hawk and Seminole wars. In the Mexican 
War General Taylor was a great favorite with his men, who called him in 
admiration "Old Rough and Ready." Before 1848 he had taken very little 
interest in politics. He was nominated because of his record as a military hero. 

2 Millard Fillmore was born in central New York in 1800, and at fourteen 
was apprenticed to a trade, but studied law at odd times, and practiced law at 
Buifalo. He served three terms in the state assembly, was four times elected 
to Congress, and was once the Whig candidate for governor. In 1848 he was 
nominated for the vice presidency as a strong Whig likely to carry New York. 



MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED 



325 




A rocker. 



of gold in California. Many years before this time a Swiss 
settler named J. A. Sutter had 
obtained a grant of land in Cali- 
fornia, where the city of Sac- 
ramento now stands. In 1848 
James W. ISIarshall, while buildiug 
a sawmill for Sutter at Coloma, 
some fifty miles away from Sut- 
ter's Fort, discovei'ed gold in the 
mill race. Botli Sutter and ^lar- 
shall attempted to keep the fact 
secret, but their strange actions 
attracted the attention of a laborer, 
who also found gold. Then tlie 
news spread fast, and people came 
by hundreds and by thousands to 
the gold fields.^ Later in the year the news reached the East, 
and when Polk in his annual message confirmed the rumors, the 
rush for California began. Some went by vessel around Cape 
Horn. Others took ships to the Isthmus of Panama, crossed it 
on foot, and sailed to San Francisco. Still others hurried to 
the ^Missouri to make the overland journey across the plains. ^ 
By August, 184:9, some eighty thousand gold hunters, " forty- 
niners," as they came to be called, had reached the mines. ^ 

1 Laborers left the fields, tradesmen the shops, and seamen deserted their 
ships as soon as they entered port. One California newspaper suspended its 
issue because editor, typesetters, and printer's devil had gone to the gold fields. 
In June the Star stopiped for a like reason, and California was without a news- 
paper. Some men made .$5000, •$10,000, and f 15,000 in a few days. California 
life in the early times is described in Kirk Munroe's Gohlen Days of '49, and 
in Bret Harte's Luck of Boarinr) Camp and Talfs of the Argonauts. 

2 Those who crossed the plains suffered terribly, and for many years the 
wrecks of their wagons, the bones of their oxen and horses, and the graves 
of many of the men were to be seen along the route. This route was from In- 
dependence in Missouri, up the Platte River, over the South Pass, past (ireat 
Salt Lake, and so to " the diggings." 

3 Some miners obtained gold by digging the earth, putting it into a tin pan, 
pouring on water, and then shaking the pan so as to throw out the muddy water 
and leave the particles of gold. Others u.sed a box mounted on rockers and 
called a " cradle " or " rocker." 

MCM. BRIEF — 20 



326 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

The State of California. — As Congress had provided no 
government, and as scarcely any could be said to exist, the 
people held a convention, made a free-state constitution, and 
applied for admission into the Union as a state. 

Issues between the North and the South. — The election of 
Taylor, and California's application for statehood, brought on a 
crisis between the North and the South. 

Most of the people in the North desired no more slave states 
and no more slave territories, abolition of slavery and the slave 
trade in the District of Columbia, and the admission of Cali- 
fornia as a free state. 

The South opposed these things ; complained of the difficulty 
of capturing slaves that escaped to the free states, and of the 
constant agitation of the slavery question by the abolitionists; 
and demanded that the Mexican cession be left open to slavery. 

Since 1840 two slave-holding states, Florida and Texas 
(1845), and two.free states, Iowa (1846) and Wisconsin (1848), 
had been admitted to the Union, making fifteen free and fifteen 
slave states in all; and the South now opposed the admission 
of California, partly because it would give the free states a ma- 
jority in the Senate. 

The Compromise of 1850. — At this stage Henry Clay was 
again sent to the Senate. He had powerfully supported two 
great compromise measures — the Missouri Compromise of 
1820, and the Compromise Tariff of 1833, He believed that 
the Union was in danger of destruction; but that if the two 
parties would again compromise, it could be saved. 

To please the North he now proposed (1) that California 
sliould be admitted as a free state, and (2) that the slave trade 
(buying and selling slaves), but not the right to own slaves, 
should be abolished in the District of Columbia. To please the 
South he proposed (1) that Congress should pass a more 
stringent law for the capture of fugitive slaves, and (2) that 
two territories. New Mexico and Utah, should be formed from 
part of the Mexican purchase, with the understanding that 
the people in them should decide whether they sliould be slave 



MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED 



327 



soil or free. This principle was called '' squatter sovereignty," 
or ''popular sovereignty." 




Clay addressing the Senate in 1850. From an old engraving. 

Texas claimed the Rio Grande as part of her west bound- 
ary. But the United States claimed the part of New Mexico 
east of the Rio Grande, and both sides seemed ready to appeal 
to arms. Clay proposed that Texas should give up her claim 
and be paid for so doing. 

During three months this plan was hotly debated,^ and threats 
of secession and violence were made openly. But in the end 
the plan was accepted : (1) California was admitted, (2) New 

1 Read the speeches of Calhoun and Webster in Johnston's American Ora- 
tions, Vol. II. Webster's speech gave great offense in the North. Read McMas- 
ter's Daniel Webster, pp. 314-324, and Whittier's poem Irhnhod. The debate 
and its attendant scenes are well described in Rhodes's History of the U. S., 
Vol. I, pp. 104-189. 



328 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

Mexico and Utah were organized as territories open to slavery, 
(3) Texas took her present bounds (see maps, p. 318) and 
received -f 10,000,000, (4) a new fugitive slave law ^ was passed, 
and (5) the slave trade was prohibited in the District of 
Columbia. These measures together were called the Compro- 
mise of 1850. 

Death of Taylor. — While the debate on the compromise was 
under way, Taylor died (July 9, 1850) and Fillmore was sworn 
into office as President for the remainder of the term. 

1 The fugitive slave law gave great offense to the North. It provided that 
a runaway slave might be seized wherever found, and brought before a United 
States judge or commissioner. The negro could not give testimony to prove 
he was not a fugitive but had been kidnaped, if such were the case. All citi- 
zens were " commanded," when summoned, to aid in the capture of a fugitive, 
and, if necessary, in his delivery to his owner. Fine and imprisonment were pro- 
vided for any one who harbored a fugitive or aided in his escape. The law was 
put in execution at once, and "slave catchers," " man hunters," as they were 
called, " invaded the North." This so excited the people that many slaves 
when seized were rescued. Such rescues occurred during 1851 at New York, 
Boston. Syracuse, and at Ottawa in Illinois. Read Wilson's Bine and Fall of 
the Slave Power in America, Chap. 26. 

In the midst of this excitement Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe published her 
story of Uncle Toni's Cabin. Mrs. Stowe's purpose was " to show the institu- 
tion of slavery truly just as it existed." The book is rather a picture of what 
slavery might have been than of what slavery really was ; but it was so power- 
fully written that everybody read it, and thousands of people in the North who 
hitherto cared little about the slavery issue were converted to abolitionism. 



SUMMARY 

1. Congress in 1811 passed two bills for chartering a new national bank, 
but President Tyler vetoed both. The Whig leaders then declared that 
Tyler was not a Whig. 

2. The next year the Webster- Ashburton treaty settled a long-standing 
dispute over the northeastern boundary. 

3. In 1841 the Democrats declared for the annexation of Texas and 
Oregon, and elected Polk President. Congress then quickly decided to 
admit Texas to the Union. 

4. War with Mexico followed a dispute over the Texas boundary. In 
the course of it Taylor won victories at Monterey and Buena Vista; Scott 
made a famous march to the city of Mexico; and Kearny marched to Santa 
Fe and on to California. 



MORE TERRITORY ACQUIRED 



329 



5. Peace added to the United States a great tract of coimti-y acquired 
from Mexico. Meanwhile, the Oregon country had been divided by treaty 
v/ith Great Britain. 

6. The acquisition of Mexican territory brought up the question of 
the admission of slavei-y, for the tei-ritory was free soil under Mexican rule. 

7. The opponents of extension of the slave area formed tlie Free-soil 
party in 1848, and drew off enough Democratic votes so that the Whigs 
elected Taylor and Fillmore. 

8. Meanwhile gold had been discovered in California, and a wild rush 
for the " diggings " began. 

9. The people in California formed a free-state constitution and ap- 
plied for admission to the Union. 

10. The chief political issues now centered around slavery, and as they 
had to be settled, lest the Union be broken, the Whigs and Democrats ar- 
ranged the Compromise of 1850. 

11. This made California a free state, but left the new territories of 
Utah and New INIexico open to slavery. 




Old Spanish ranch house in southern Cahfornia. 




331 



CHAPTER XXVI 

THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE SOIL 

The Presidential Campaign of 1852. — The Coin})roinise of 
1850 was thought to be a iiiuil settlement of all the troubles that 
liad grown out of slavery. The great leaders of the Whig 
and Democratic parties solemnly pledged themselves to stand 
by the com[)romise, and when the national conventions met 
in 1852, the two parties in their platforms made e([ually solemn 
promises. 

The Democrats nominated P"'ranklin Pierce ^ of New Hamp- 
shire for President, and declared they would '* abide by and 
adhere to " the compromise, and would " resist all attempts at 
renewing, in Congress or out of it, the agitation of the slavery 
question." The Whigs selected Winfield Scott, and declared 
the compromise to be a " settlement in principle " of the 
slavery question, and promised to do all they could to prevent 
further agitation of it. The Free-soilers nominated John P. 
Hale of New Hampshire. The refusal of the Whig party to 
stand against the compromise drove many Northern voters 
from its ranks. Pierce carried every state save four and, ]March 
4, 1858, was duly inaugurated .^ 

The Slavery Question not Settled. — I>ut Pierce had not been 
many months in othce when the quarrel over slavery was raging 
once more. In January, 1854, Stephen A. Douglas of Illinois 
introduced into the Senate a l)ill to organize a new territory to 

1 Franklin Pierce was born in New Hampshire in 1804, and died in 18G9. 
He began his political career in the state legislature, went to Congress in 1833, 
and to the United States Senate in 1837. In the war with Mexico, Pierce rose 
from the ranks to a brigadier generalship. He was a bitter opponent of anti- 
slavery measures ; but when the Civil War opened he became a Union man. 

- The electoral vote was, for Pierce, 254 ; for Scott, 42. The popular vole 
was, for Pierce, 1,601,474 ; for Scott, 1,380,580; for Hale, 155,0(57. 

332 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE SOIL 



333 



— -^- 




Governor's mansion, Kansas, in 1857. 

Coiiteiniiorai-y drawing. 



be called Nebraska. Every foot of it was north of 36^ 30' and 
was, by the Compromise of 1820 (p. 274), free soil. But an 
attempt was made to amend the bill and declare that the Mis- 
souri Compromise should not apply to Nebraska, whereupon 
such bitter opposition arose that Douglas recalled his bill and 
brought in another.^ 

Kansas-Nebraska Act. ^ — -The new bill provided for t'le crea- 
tion of two territories, one to be called Kansas and the other 
Nebraska ; for the repeal 
of the Missouri Compro- 
mise, thus opening the 
country north of 36° 30' 
to slavery ; and for the 
adoption of the doctrine 
of popular sovereignty. 

Many Democrats and 
Whigs joined the Free- 
soilers in the effort to de- 
feat the bill. But it passed Congress, was signed by the Presi- 
dent, and became a law (1854). ^ 

The Struggle for Kansas. — And now began a seven years' 
struggle between the Free-soilers and the proslavery men for 
the possession of Kansas. Men of both parties hurried to the 
territory.^ The first election was for territorial delegate to 
Congress, and was carried by the proslavery party assisted by 
hundreds of Missourians who entered the territory, voted unlaw- 

1 Stephen A. Douglas was born in Vermont in 1818, went west In 1833, was 
made attorney-general of Illinois in 1834, secretary of state and judge of the 
supreme court of Illinois in 18-10, a member of Congress in 1843, and of the 
United States Senate in 1847. He was a small man, but one of such mental 
power that he was called " the Little Giant." He was a candidate for the presi- 
dential nomination in the Democratic conventions of 1852 and 185(5, and in 1860 
was nominated by the Northern wing of that party. He was a Union man. 

^ For popular opinion on the Kansas-Nebraska bill, read Rhodes's History of 
the U. S., Vol. I, pp. 461-470. 

^ Proslavery men from Missouri and other Southern states founded Atchison, 
Leavenworth, Lecompton, and Kickapoo, in the northeastern part of Kansas. 
Free-state men from the North founded Lawrence, Topeka, Manhattan, Osawa- 
tomie, in the east-central part of the territory. 



334 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

fully, and went home. The second election was for members 
of the territorial legislature. Again the Missourians swarmed 
over the border, and a proslavery legislature was elected. 
Governor Reeder set the elections aside in seven districts, and 
in them other members were chosen ; but the legislature when 
it met turned out the seven so elected and seated the men re- 
jected by the governor. The proslavery laws of Missouri were 
adopted, and Kansas became a slave-holding territory. 

The Topeka Constitution. — Unwilling to be governed by a 
legishiture so elected, looking on it as illegal and usurping, the 
free-state men framed a state constitution at Topeka (1855), 
organized a state government, and applied to Congress for ad- 
mission into the Union as a state. Tlie House of Representa- 
tives voted to admit Kansas, but the Senate would not consent, 
and (July 4, 185H) United States troops dispersed the legisla- 
ture when it attempted to assemble under the Topeka constitu- 
tion. Kansas was a slave-holding territory for two years yet 
before the free-state men secured a majority in the legislature,! 
and not till 1861 did it secure admission as a free state. 

Personal Liberty Laws. — In the East meantime the rapidly 
growing feeling against slavery found expression in what were 
called personal liberty laws, which in time were enacted by all 
save two of the free states. Their avowed object was to prevent 
free negroes from being sent into slavery on the claim that they 
were fugitive slaves ; but they really obstructed the execution 
of the fugitive slave law of 1850. 

Another sign of Northern feeling was the sympathy now 
shown for the Underground Railroad. This was not a railroad, 
but a network of routes along which slaves escaping to the free 
states were sent by night from one friendly house to another 
till they reached a place of safety, perhaps in C-anada. 

1 In 1856 border war raged in Kansas, settlers were murdered, property 
destroyed, and the free-state town of Lawrence was sacked by the proslavery 
men. In 1857 the proslavery party made a slave-state constitution at Lecompton 
and applied for admission, and the Senate (1858) voted to admit Kansas under 
it ; but the House refused. In 1859 the Free-soilers made a second (the Wyan- 
dotte) constitution, under which Kau.sas was admitted into the Union (1861). 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE SOIL 



335 




Reception at the White House, in 1858. Contemijorary drawing. 

Breaking up of Old Parties. — On political parties tlie events 
of tlie fonr years l85')-')-l: were serious. Tlie Compromise of 
1850, and the vigorous execution of the new fugitive slave law, 
drove thousands of old line Whigs from their party. The 
deaths of Clay and Webster in 1852 deprived the party of its 
greatest leaders. Tlie Kansas-Nel)raska bill com})leted the 
ruin, and from that time forth the party was of small political 
importance. The Democratic party also suffered, and thousands 
left its ranks to join the Free-soilers. Out of such elements 
in 1854-56 was founded the new Republican party. ^ 



' The breaking up of old parties over the slavery issues naturally brought up 
the question of forming a new party, and at a meeting at Ripon in Wisconsin 
in 1854, it was proposed to call the new party Republican. After the passage 
of the Kansas-Nebraska bill, a thousand citizens of Michigan signed a call for 
a state convention, at which a Republican state party was formed and a ticket 
nominated on which were Whigs, Free-soilers, and Anti-Nebraska Democrats. 
Similar " fusion tickets," as they were called, were adopted in eight other states. 
The success of the new party in the elections of 1854, and its still greater suc- 
cess in 1855, led to a call for a convention at Pittsburg on Washington's Birth- 
day, 185G. There and then the national Republican party was founded. 



336 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGALXST SLAVERY 

' The Campaign of 1856. — ^At Philadelphia, in June, 185(3, a 
Republican national convention nominated John C. Fremont 
for President. The Democrats nominated James Buchanan. 
A remnant of the Whigs, now nicknamed " Silver Grays," in- 
dorsed Fillmore, who had been nominated by tlie American, or 
" Know-nothing," party. ^ The Free-soilers joined the Repub- 
licans. lUichanan was elected. ^ 

Died Scott Decision, 1857. — Two days after the inauguration 
of Buchanan, the Supreme Court made public a decision which 
threw the country into intense excitement, A slave named 
Dred Scott had been taken by his owner from Missouri to the 
free state of Illinois and then to Minnesota, made free soil by 
the Compromise of 1820. When brought back to Missouri, 
Dred Scott sued for freedom. Long residence on free soil, he 
claimed, had made him free. The case finally reached the 
Supreme Court of the United States, which decided against 
him. 3 But in delivering the decision, Chief-Justice Taney an- 
nounced: (1) that Congress could not shut slavery out of the 
territories, and (2) that the Missouri Compromise of 1820 was 
unconstitutional and void. 

1 The American party was the outcome of a long-prevalent feeling against 
the election of foreign-born citizens to office. At many times and at many 
places this feeling had produced political organizations. But it was not till 
1852 that a secret, oath-bound organization, with signs, grips, and passwords, 
was formed and spread its membership rapidly through most of the states. As 
its members would not tell its principles and methods, and professed entire 
ignorance of them when questioned, the American party was called in derision 
"the Know-nothings." Its success, however, was great, and in 1855 Know- 
nothing governors and legislatures were elected in eight states, and heavy votes 
polled in six more. 

2 The electoral vote was, for Buchanan, 174 ; for Fremont, 114 ; for Fill- 
moi'e, 8. The popular vote was, for Buchanan, 1,838,1(50 ; for Fremont, 1,341,- 
264 ; for Fillmore, 874,534. James Buchanan was born in Pennsylvania in 1701, 
was educated at school and college, studied law, served in the state legislature, 
was five times elected to the House of Representatives, and three times to the 
Senate. In the Senate he was a warm supporter of Jackson, and favored the 
annexation of Texas under Tyler. He was Secretary of State under Polk, and 
had been minister to Great Britain. 

3 The Chief Justice ruled that no negro whose ancestors had been brought 
as slaves into the United States could be a citizen ; Scott therefore was not a 
citizen, and hence could not sue in any United States court. 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE SOIL 



337 




The Territories Open to Slavery. — This decision confirmed all 
that the South had gained 



by the Kansas-Nebraska 
Act and the Compromise 
of 1850, and also opened 
to slavery Washington 
and Oregon, which were 
then free territories. 

If the court supposed 
that its decision would 
eud tlie struggle, it was 
niucli mistaken. Not a 
year went by but some 
incident occurred which 
added to the excitement. 

Lincoln-Douglas De- 
bate. — In 1858 tlie peo- 
ple of Illinois were to 
elect a legislature which 
would choose a senator 
to succeed Stephen A. 
Douglas. The Demo- 
crats declared for Douglas. The Republicans nominated Abra- 
ham Lincohi,! and as the canvass proceeded the two candidates 

1 Abraham Lincoln was born in Kentucky, February 12, 1809, and wliile still 
a child was taken by his parents to Indiana. The first winter was spent in a half- 
faced camp, and for several years the log cabin that replaced it had neither door 
nor wood floor. Twelve months' "schooling" was all he ever had ; but he was 
fond of books and borrowed ^Esop's Fables, Bobinson Crusoe, and Weenis's Life 
of ]Vashi))gton, the book in which first appeared the fabulous story of the hatchet 
and the cherry tree. At nineteen Lincoln went as a flatboatnian to New Orleans. 
In 18;]0 his father moved to Illinois, where Lincoln helped build the cabin and 
split the rails to fence in the land, and then went on another flatboat voyage to 
New Orleans. He became a clerk in a store in 1831, served as a volunteer in the 
Black Hawk War, tried business and failed, became postmaster of New Salem, 
which soon ceased to have a post office, supported himself as jDlowman, farm 
hand, and wood cutter, and tried surveying ; but made so many friends that in 
1834: he was sent to the legislature, and reelected in 1830, 1838, and 1840. He 
now began the practice of law, settled in Springfield, was elected to Congress 
in 1846, and served there one term. 



^ r HUIU III nn i ^jVwr^lUI i[H^— ^ , 4iji. , , 1 I, ■ "i^ > yjy>'^fl^.i |^n,>m-fljiiri]i^ 



Lincoln's law office in Springfield. 



338 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

traversed the state, holding a series of debates. The questions 
discussed were popular sovereignty, the Dred Scott decision, 
and the extension of slavery into the territories, and the de- 
bates attracted the attention of the whole country. Lincoln 
was defeated ; but his speeches gave him a national reputation.^ 

John Brown at Harpers Ferry. — In 1859 John Brown, a life- 
long enemy of slavery, went to Harpers Ferry, Virginia, with 
a little band of followers, to stir up an insurrection and free the 
slaves. He was captured, tried for murder and treason, and 
hanged. ' The attempt was a wild one; but it caused intense 
excitement in both the North and the South, and added to the 
bitter feeling which had long existed between the two sec- 
tions.2 

The Presidential Election of i860. — The Democrats were 
now so divided on the slavery issues that when they met in 
convention at Charleston, South Carolina, in 1860, the party was 
rent in twain, and no candidates were chosen. Later in the 
year the Northern wing nominated Stephen A. Douglas for 
President. The Southern delegates, at a convention of their 
own, selected John C. Breckinridge. 

Another party made up of old Whigs and Know-notliings 
nominated John Bell of Tennessee. This was the Constitu- 
tional Union party. The Republicans^ named Abraham Lin- 
coln and carried the election.^ 

1 For a description of the Lincoln-Douglas debate of 1858, read Rhodes's 
History of the U. S., Vol. II, pp. 314-338. 

2 Many persons regarded Brown as a martyr. Read Wluttier's Brown of 
Ossawatomie, or Stednian's How Old Brown took Harper'' s Ferry. Read, also, 
Rhodes's History of the U. S., Vol. II, pp. 383-398. 

3 The platform of the Republicans adopted in 1860 (at Chicago) sets forth : 
(1) that the party repudiates the principles of the Dred Scott decision, (2) that 
Kansas must be admitted as a free state, (3) that the territories must be free soil, 
and (4) that slavery in existing states should not be interfered with. 

4 The electoral vote was, for Lincoln, 180; for Douglas, 12 ; for Breckinridge, 
72 ; for Bell, 39. The popular vote was, for Lincoln, 1,866,452 ; for Douglas, 
1,370,957 ; for Breckinridge, 849,781 ; for Bell, 588,879. Lincoln received no 
votes at all in ten Southern states. The popular votes were so distributed that if 
those for Douglas, Breckinridge, and Bell had all been cast for one of the candi- 
dates, Lincoln would still have been elected President (by 173 electoral votes to 
130). 



THE STRUGGLE FOR FREE SOIL 



339 



SUMMARY 

1. The Compromise of 1850 was supposed to settle the slavery issues, 
and the two great parties pledged themselves to support it. 

2. But the issues were not settled, and in 1854 the organization of Kan- 
sas and Nebraska reopened the struggle. 

3. The Kansas-Nebraska bill and the contest over Kansas split both the 
Whig party and the Democratic party, and by the union of those who left 
them, with the Free-soilers, the Republican party was made, 1854-56. 

4. In 1857 the Supreme Court declared the Missouri Compromise uncon- 
stitutional, and opened all territories to slavery. 

5. In 1858 this decision and other slavery issues were debated by Lin- 
coln and Douglas. 

6. This debate made Lincoln a national character, and in 1860 he was 
elected President by the Republican party. 




Schoolhouse in the mountains, used by 
Brown as an arsenal. 
Contemporary drawing. 



CHAPTER XXVII 



STATE or THE COUNTRY FROM ISiO TO 1860 

Population. — In the twenty j^ears which had ehipsed since 
1840 the popuhition of our country had risen to over 31,000,000. 
In New York alone there were, in 1860, about as many people 
as lived in the whole United States in 1789. 

Not a little of this increase of population was due to the 
stream of immigrants which had been pouring into the country. 
From a few thousand in 1820, the number who came each year 
rose gradually to about 100,000 in the year 1842, and then 
went down again. But famine in Ireland and hard times in 
Germany started another great wave of immigration, which rose 

higher and higher till 




Settled area :n 1840 '«."^,. 

I -.- ■■.■:■ i Dots indicate regions settled" 
t-ii^betweenI840 andil860 




(1854) more than 
400,000 people arrived 
in one year. Tlien 
once more the wave 
subsided, and in 1861 
less than 90,000 came. 
New States and 
Territories. — Though 
population was still 
Settled area in i860. moving westward, few 

of our countrymen, before the gold craze of 1849, had crossed 
the Missouri, Those who did, went generally to Oregon, which 
was organized as a territory in 1848 and admitted into the 
Union as a state in 1859. By that time California (1850) and 
Minnesota (1858) had also been admitted, so that the Union in 
1860 consisted of thirty-three states and five territories. Eigh- 
teen states were free, and fifteen slave-holding. The five ter- 

340 



STATE OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1840 TO 1860 341 

ritories were New Mexico, Utali, Washington (1853), Kansas, 
and Nebraska (small map, p. 394). 

City Life. — About one sixth of the population in 1860 lived 
in cities, of which there were about 140 of 8000 or more people 
each. Most of them were ugly, dirty, badly built, and poorly 
governed. The older ones, however, were much improved. 
The street pump had given way to water works ; gas and 
plumbing were in general use ; many cities had uniformed 
police ;^ but the work of fighting fires was done by volunteer 
fire departments. Street cars (drawn by horses) now ran in 
all the chief cities, omnibuses were in general use, and in New 
York city the great Central Park, the first of its kind in the 
country, had been laid out. Illustrated magazines, and weekly 
papers, Sunday newspapers, and trade journals had been estab- 
lished, and in some cities graded schools had been introduced. ^ 

Schools and Colleges. — In the country the district school 
for l)oys and girls was gradually being improved. The larger 
cities of the North now had high schools as well as common 
schools, and in a few instances separate high schools for girls. 
Between 1840 and 1860 eighty-two sectarian and twenty non- 
sectarian colleges were founded, and the Naval Academy at 
Annapolis was opened. Not even the largest college in 1860 
had 800 students, and in but one (University of Iowa, 1856) 
were women admitted to all departments. 

Literature. — Public libraries were now to be found not only 
in the great cities, but in most of the large towns, and in such 
libraries were collections of poetry, essays, novels, and histories 
written by American authors. Longfellow, Holmes, Lowell, Poe, 
Bryant, and Whittier among poets ; Hawthorne, Irving, Cooper, 
Simms, and Poe among writers of fiction; Emerson and Lowell 
among essayists, were read and admired abroad as well as at 
home. Prescott, who had lately (1859) died, had left behind 

1 All the large cities were so poorly governed, liowever, that they were often 
the scenes of serious riots, political, labor, race, and even religious. 

■^ An unfriendly picture of the United States in 1842 is Dickens's American 
Notes, a book well worth reading. 



342 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

him histories of Spain in the Old World and in the New ; 
Parkman was jast beginning his story of the French in America; 
Motley had published his Rise of the Dutch Republic, and part 
of his History of the United Netherlands ; Hildreth had com- 
pleted one History of the United /States, and Bancroft was still 
at work on another. 

Near these men of the first rank stood many writers popular 
in their day. The novels of Kennedy, and the poetry of Drake, 
Halleck, and Willis are not yet forgotten. 

Occupations. — In the Eastern states the people were engaged 
chiefly in fishing, commerce, and manufacturing ; in the Middle 
states in farming, commerce, manufacturing, and mining. To 
the great coal and iron mines of Pennsylvania were (1859) 
added tlie oil fields. That petroleum existed in that state had 
long been known ; but it was not till Drake drilled a well near 
Titusville (in northwestern Pennsylvania) and struck oil that 
enough was obtained to make it marketable. Down the Ohio 
there was a great trade in bituminous coal, and the union of 
the coal, iron, and oil trades was already making Pittsburg a 
great city. In the South little change had taken place. Cot- 
ton, tobacco, sugar, and the products of the pine forests were 
still the chief sources of wealth ; mills and factories hardly 
existed. The West had not only its immense farms, but also 
the iron mines of upper Michigan, the lead mines of the upper 
Mississippi and in Missouri, the copper mines of the Lake 
Superior country, and the lumber industry of ^Michigan and 
Wisconsin. Through the lakes passed a great commerce. 
California was the great gold-mining state ; but gold and silver 
had just been discovered near Pikes Peak, and in what is now 
Nevada. 

The Mormons. — Utah territory in 1860 contained forty 
thousand white people, nearly all Mormons. These people, as 
we have seen, when driven from Missouri, built the city called 
Nauvoo in Illinois. Their leaders now introduced the practice 
of polygamy, and in various ways opposed the state authorities. 
In 181:4 they came to blows with the state ; the leaders were 



STATE OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1840 TO 1860 



343 



arrested, and while in jail Joseph Smith and his brother were 
murdered by a mob. Brig'ham Young then became head of the 
church, and in the winter of 1846 the Mormons, driven from 
Nauvoo, crossed the Mississippi and began a long march west- 
ward over the plains to Great Salt Lake, then in Mexico. 
There they settled down, and when the war wdth Mexico ended, 
they were again in the United States. When Utah was made 
a territory in 1850, Brigham Young was appointed its first 
pfovernor.i 

The Far West. — Before 1850 each new state added to the 
Union had bordered on some older state ; but now California 



iii^[#5.% 




Fort Union, built in 1829 by the American Fur Company. 

and Oregon were separated from the other states by wide 

stretches of wilderness. The Rocky INIountain highland and 

1 Several non-Mormon officials were sent to Utah, but they were not allowed 
to exercise any authority, and were driven out. The Mormons formed the 
state of Deseret and applied for admission into the Union. Congress paid no 
attention to the appeal, and (1857) Buchanan appointed a new governor and 
sent troops to Utah to uphold the Federal authority. Young forbade them to 
enter the territory, and dispatched an armed force that captured some of their 
supplies. In the spring of 1858 the President offered pardon '• to all who will 
submit themselves to the just authority of the Federal Government," and Young 
and his followers did so. 



344 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

the Great Plains, however, were not entirely uninhabited. 
Over them wandered bands of Indians mounted on fleet ponies ; 
white hunters and trappers, some trapping for themselves, 
some for the great fur companies ; and immense herds of 
buffalo,^ and in the south herds of wild horses. The streams 
still abounded with beaver. Game was everywhere, deer, elk, 
antelope, bears, wild turkeys, prairie chickens, and on the 
streams wild ducks and geese. Here and there were villages 
of savage and merciless Indians, and the forts or trading posts 
of the trappers. Every year bands of emigrants crossed the 
plains and tlie mountains, bound to Utah, California, or Oregon. 
Proposed Railroad to the Pacific. — In 18-12 John C. Fremont, 
with Kit Carson as guide, began a series of explorations which 
finally extended from the Columbia to the Colorado, and from 
the Missouri to California and Oregon (map, p. 314). ^ Men 
then began to urge seriously the plan of a railroad across the 
continent to some point on the Pacific. In 1845 Asa Whitney^ 
applied to Congress for a grant of a strip of land from some 
point on Lake Michigan to Puget Sound, and came again with 
like appeals in 1846 and 1848. By that time the Mexican 
cession had been acquired, and this with the discovery of gold 
in California gave the idea such importance that (in 1853) 

lAn interesting account of the buffalo is given in A. C. Laut's Tlie Story 
of the Trapper, pp. 65-80. Herds of a hundred thousand were common. As 
many as a million buffalo robes were sent east each year in the thirties and 
forties. 

2 John C. Fremont was born in Savannah, Georgia, in 1813, and in 1842 was 
Lieutenant of Engineers, United States Army. In 1842 he went up the Platte 
Kiver and through the South Pass. The next year he passed southward to 
Great Salt Lake, then northwestward to the Columbia, then southward through 
Oregon to California, and back by Great Salt Lake to South Pass in 1844. 
In 1845 he crossed what is now Nebraska and Utah, and reached the vicinity 
of Monterey in California. The Mexican authorities ordered him away ; but 
he remained in California and helped to win the country during the war with 
Mexico. Later he was senator from California, Republican candidate for Presi- 
dent in 1856, and an army general during the Civil War. 

3 Whitney asked for a strip sixty miles wide. So much of the land as was 
not needed for railroad purposes was to be sold and the money used to build the 
road. During 1847-49 his plan was approved by the legislatures of seventeen 
states, and by mass meetings of citizens or Boards of Trade in seventeen cities. 



STATE OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1840 TO 1860 



345 



money was finally voted by Congress for the survey of several 
routes. Jefferson Davis, as Secretary of War, ordered five 
routes to be surveyed and (in 1855) recommended the most 
southerly ; and the Senate passed a bill to charter three roads. ^ 
Jealousy among the states prevented the passage of the bill 
by the House. In 1860 the platfoi-ms of the Democratic and 
Republican parties declared for such a railroad. 

Mechanical Improvement. — During the period 18-40-60 me- 
chanical improvement was more remarkable than in earlier 
periods. The first iron-front building was erected, the first 
steam fire engine used, wire rope manufactured, a grain drill 
invented, Hoe's printing press 
Avitli revolving type cylinders 
introduced, and six inventions 
or discoveries of universal 
benefit to mankind were given 
to the world. They were the 
electric telegraph, the sewing 
machine, the improved har- 
vester, vulcanized rubber, the 
photogra[)h, and amesthesia. 

The Telegraph. — Seven 
years of struggle enabled 
Samuel F. B. Morse, helped by 
Alfred Vail, to make the elec- 
tric telegraph a success,2and in 
1844, with the aid of a small ap- 
propriation by Congress, Morse 

built a telegraph line from Morse and his first telegraph instrument. 

1 One from the west border of Texas to California ; another from the west 
border of Missouri to California ; and a third from the west border of Wisconsin 
to tire Pacific in Oregon or Washington. 

2 In 1842 Morse laid the first submarine telegraph in the world, from 
Governors Island in New York harbor t6 New York city. It consisted of a wire 
wound with string and coated with tai", pitch, and india rubber, to prevent the 
electric current running off into the water. It was laid on October 18, and the 
next morning, while messages were being received, the anchor of a vessel caught 
and destroyed the wire. 

MCM. BRIEF 21 




346 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



Baltimore to Washington. ^ Further aid was asked from Congress 

and refused. 2 The Magnetic Telegraph Company was then 

started. New York and Baltimore were connected in 1846, 

and in ten years some forty companies were in operation in the 

most populous states. 

The Sewing Machine ; the Harvester. — A man named 

Hunt invented the lockstitch sewing machine in 1834 ; but it 

was not successful, and some time 

elapsed before his idea was taken up 

by Elias Howe, who after several 

years of experiment (1846) made a 

practical machine. People were slow 

to use it, but by 1850 he had so 

aroused the interest of inventors that 

seven rivals were in the field, and to 

their joint labors we owe one of the ^C 

most usefi.ii inventions of the cen- ' 

tury. From the household the sewing «°^^'^ ^''' ^^^^"^ machine.. 

machine passed into use in factories (1862), and to-day gives 

employment to hun- 
dreds of thousands of 
people. 

What the sewing 

machine is to the home 

and the factory, that 

fi^ is the reaper to the 

'"^'^ farm. After many 

years of experiment 





Early harvester. 



From an old firint. 



1 The wire was at first put in a lead tube and laid in a furrow plowed in 
the earth. This failed ; so the wire was strung on poles. One end was in the 
Pratt St. Depot, Baltimore, and the other in the Supreme Court Chamber 
at Washington. The first words sent, after the completion of the line, were 
" What hath God wrought." Two days later the Democratic convention (which 
nominated Polk for President) met at Baltimore, and its proceedings were 
reported hourly to Washington by telegraph. 

■^ Morse offered to sell his patent to the government, but the Postmaster 
General reported that the telegraph was merely an interesting experiment and 
could never have a practical value, so the offer was not accepted. 



STATE OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1840 TO 1860 



347 



Cyrus McCormick invented a practical reaper and (1840) 
sought to put it on the market, but several more j^ears passed 
before success was assured. To-da}', greatly improved and 
perfected, it is in use the world over, and has made possible 
the great grain fields, not only of our own middle West and 
Northwest, but of Argentina, Australia, and Russia. 

Vulcanized Rubber ; Photography : Anaesthesia. — The early 
attempts to use India rubl)er for shoes, coats, ca[)s, and wagon 
covers failed because in warm weather the rubber softened and 
emitted an offensive smell. To overcome this Goodyear 
labored year after year to discover a method of hardening or, 
as it is called, vulcanizing rubber. Even when tlie discovery 
was made and patented, sev- 
eral years passed before he was 
sure of the process. In 1844 
he succeeded and gave to the 
world a most useful inven- 
tion. 

In 1839 a Frenchman 
named Daguerre patented a 
method of taking pictures 
by exposing to sunlight a 
copper plate treated with 
certain chemicals. The ex- 
posure for each picture was 
some twenty minutes. An 
American, Dr. John W. Dra- 
per, so improved the method 
that pictures were taken of persons in a much shorter time, 
and photography was fairly started. 

Greater yet was the discovery that by breathing sulphuric 
ether a person can become insensible to pain and then recover 
consciousness. The glory of the discovery has been claimed 
for Dr. Morton and Dr. Jackson, wlio used it in 184G. Laugh- 
ing gas (nitrous oxide) was used as an anaesthetic before this 
time by Dr. Wells of Hartford. 




A daguerreotype, in metal case, 1843. 



343 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

Transportation Improved. — In the country east of the Mis- 
sissippi some thirty thousand miles of railroad had been built, 
and direct communication opened from the North and East 
to Chicago (1853) aud New Orleans (1859). For the growth 
of railroads between 1850 and 1861 study the maps on 
pp. 331, 353.^ At first the lines between distant cities were 
composed of many connecting but independent roads. Thus 
between Albany and Buffalo there were ten such little roads ; 
but in 1853 they were consolidated and became the New 
York Central, and the era of the great trunk lines was fairly 
opened. 

On the ocean, steamship service between the Old World 
and the New was so improved that steamships passed from 
Liverpool to New York in less than twelve days. 

Better means of transportation were of benefit, not merely 
to the traveler and the merchant, but to the people generally. 
Letters could be carried faster and more cheaply, so the rate 
of postage on a single letter was reduced (1851) from five 
or ten cents to three cents,^ and before 1860 express service 
covered every important line of transportation. 

The Atlantic Cable. — The success of the telegraph on land 
suggested a bold attempt to lay wires across the bed of the 
ocean, and in 1854 Cyrus W. Field of New York was asked to 
aid in the laying of a cable from St. Johns to Cape Ray, New- 
foundland. But Field went further and formed a company to 
join Newfoundland and Ireland by cable, and after two failures 

1 The use of vast sums of money in building so many railroads, together 
with overtrading and reckless speculation, brought on a business panic in 1857. 
Factories were closed, banks failed, thousands of men and women were thrown 
out of employment, and for two years the country suffered from hard times. 

2 It was not till 1883 that the rate was reduced to two cents. Before the 
introduction of the postage stamp, letters were sent to the post offices, and when 
the postage had been paid, they were marked " Paid " by the officials. When 
the mails increased in volume in the large cities, this way of doing business con- 
sumed so mxich time that the postmasters at St. Louis and New York .sold stamps 
to be affixed to letters as evidence that the postage had been paid. The con- 
venience was so great that public opinion forced Congress to authorize the post 
office department to furnish stamps and require the people to use them 
(1847). 



STATE OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1840 TO 1860 349 

succeeded (1858). During three weeks all went well and 
some four hundred messages were sent ; then the cable ceased 
to work, and eight years passed before another was laid. Since 
then many telegraph cables have been laid across the Atlantic ; 
but it was not till 1903 that the first was laid across the Pacific. 

Foreign Relations. — We have seen how during this period 
our country was expanded by the annexation of Texas (1845) 
and by two cessions of territory from Mexico (1848 and 1853). 
But this was not enough to satisfy the South, and attempts were 
made to buy Cuba. Polk (1848) offered Spain -t 100,000,000 
for it. Filibusters tried to capture it (in 1851), and Pierce 
(1853) urged its annexation. With this end in view our 
ministers to Great Britain, France, and Spain met at Ostend 
in Belgium in 1854 and issued what was called the Ostend 
Manifesto. This set forth that Cuba must be annexed to pro- 
tect slavery, and if Spain would not sell for a fair price, ••' then 
by every law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wrest- 
ing it from Spain if we possess the power." Buchanan also 
(1858) uiged tlie purchase of Cuba; but in vain. 

China and Japan. — More pleasing to recall are our rela- 
tions with (yhina and Japan. Our flag was first seen in China 
in 1784, when the trading vessel EmpreHs of China reached 
Canton. Washington (1790) appointed a consul to reside 
in that cit}-, the only one in China tlien open to foreign 
trade ; but no minister from the United States was sent to 
China till Caleb Cushing went in 1844. By him our first 
treaty was negotiated with China, under which five ports were 
opened to American trade and two very important concessions 
secured : (1) American citizens charged with any criminal act 
were to be tried and punished only by the American consul. 
(2) All privileges which China miglit give to any other nation 
were likewise to be given to the United States. 

At that time Japan was a "hermit nation." In 1853, how- 
ever. Commodore M. C. Perry went to that country with a 
fleet, and sent to the emperor a message expressing the wish 
of the United States to enter into trade relations with Japan. 



350 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

Then he sailed away ; but returned in 1854 and made a treaty 
(the first entered into by Japan) whicli resulted in opening 
that country to the United States. Other nations followed, 
and Japan was thus opened to trade with the civilized world. 



SUMMARY 

1. Between 1840 and 1860 the poj^ulation increased from 17,000,000 to 
31,000,000. 

2. During this period millions of immigrants had come. 

3. As population continued to move westward new states and territories 
■were formed. 

4. In one of these new territories, Utah, were the Mormons who had 
been driven from Illinois. 

5. The rise of a new state on the Pacific coast revived the old demand 
for a railroad across the plains, and surveys were ordered. 

6. East of the Mississippi thousands of miles of railroads were built, 
and the East, the West, and the far South were connected. 

7. This period is mai'ked by many great inventions and discoveries, 
including the telegraph, the sewing machine, and the reaper. 

8. It was in this period that trade relations were begun with China 
and Japan. 



CHAPTER XXVIIl 



THE CIVIL WAR. 18(31-1863 



MERCURT 



EXTRA: 



The Confederate States of 
America. — After Lincobrs 
election, the cotton states, 
one by one, passed ordinances 
declaring- that they left the 
Union. First to go was 
South Carolina (December 
20, 1860), and by February 
1, 1801, ^Mississippi, Florida, 
Alal)ania, Georgia, Louisiana, 
and Texas had followed. On 
February 4 delegates from 
six of these seven states met 
at ]\Iontgomery, Alal)ama, 
framed a constitution, ^ es- 
tablished the " Confederate 
States of America," and 
elected Jefferson Davis -and 

1 The constitution of the Con- 
federacy was the Constitution of the 
United States altered to suit condi- 
tions. The President was to serve 
six years and was not to be eli<;ible 
for reelection ; the right to own slaves 
was affirmed, but no slaves were to 
be imported from any foreign country 
'''except the slave-holding states of the 
old Union. The Congress was for- 
bidden to establish a tariff for protection of any branch of industry. A Su- 
preme Court was provided for, but was never organized. 

- Jefferson Davis was born in 1808, graduated from the Military Academy at 
West Point in 1828, served in the Black Plawk War, resigned from the army in 
1835, and became a cotton planter in Mississippi. In 1845 he was elected to 

:151 



PaMed uuttnlmmulu at 1.15 o'clock, P. -V., Heeember 
SO/A, I860. 

AJf ORDIWAWCE 

To dUeolr* fA« lition frf/tivpn the Siate ttf Houth Cnratlna and 
other States united with tier wider the compact etdUled " The 
Cbnatitutton tif the Vaittd Stolen of Amertva.^ 

7n oiMtnUatt do dtdart and otiiain, ODd 

Ttai the OriJloMc* iMiopwd by aj in C«nTtatio6, on lh« IweMy-thlrt <U7 of M»y, iB lb. 
ywr af our Lonl one lhouf«i4 Mveo boodred wiltighlv-eigbc, wberoby Iba Cooalitolion of tb. 
TaiteJ Suiea of America was raliaad, anO also, tO Acls and parta of Acta of tbe OoDafbi 
Aasemblj of Ibia State, ratifying amendmaota of tbo .aid rooaUtatjoo, art bet«by ropoaled: 
4iid that the ooiun oo* subaiitiag b«tw«ea Soolb Carolioa and othor Staled ^odar the oaffle of 
''The Uoiled SlAtflS of AtBertda." ia bereby diaaolved. 



UNION 

mmmw. 

Newspaper bulletin posted in the streets 
of Charleston. 




352 




353 




Abraham Lincoln. 

riiotoi^raph of ISut). 



354 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1863 



355 



Alexander H. Stephens provisional President and Vice Presi- 
dent. Later they were elected by the people. 

Lincoln's Policy. — President Bnchanan did notliing to 
prevent all this, and such was the political situation when 
Lincoln was inangurated (March 4, 1861). His views and his 
policy were clearly stated in his inaugural address : " I have 
no purpose directly or indirectly to interfere with the institu- 
tion of slavery in the 
states where it exists. 
. . . No state on its 
own mere motion can 
lawfully get out of the 
Union. . . . The Union 
is unbroken, and to the 
extent of my ability I 
shall take care that the 
laws of the LTnion be 
faithfully executed in all 
the states. . . . In do- 
ing this there need be no 
bloodshed or violence. 
and there shall be none 
unless it be forced upon 
the national authority. 
. . . The power con- Jefferson Davis. 

fided in me will be used to hold, occupy, and possess tlie prop- 
erty and places belonging to the government." 

Fort Sumter Captured. — Almost all the " property and 
places " belonging to the United States government in the seven 
seceding states had been seized by the Confederates. ^ But 




Congress, but resigned to take part in tlie Mexican War, and was wounded at 
Buena Vista. In 1847 he was elected a senator, and from 185.3 to 1857 was Secre- 
tary of War. He then returned to the Senate, where he was wlien Mississippi 
seceded. He died in New .Orleans in 1889. 

1 Property of the United States seized by the states was turned over to the 
Confederate government. Thus Louisiana gave up .$")o6,()00 in specie taken 
from the United States customhouse and mint at New Orleans. 



356 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor was still in Union hands, and 
to this, Lincoln notified the governor of South Carolina, supplies 
would be sent. Thereupon the Confederate army already gath- 
ered in Charleston bombarded the fort till Major Anderson 
surrendered it (April 14, 1861).^ 





1^^^ 


1 


mr »fji^ 



One of the batteries that bombarded Fort Sumter. 



The War opens. — With the capture of Fort Sumter the 
war for the Union opened in earnest. On April 15 Lincoln 
called for seventy-five thousand militia to serve for three 
months.^ Thereupon Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, and 
Arkansas seceded and joined the Confederacy. The capital of 
the Confederacy was soon moved from Montgomery to Rich- 
mond, Virginia. 

Jn the slave-holding states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, 
and Missouri the Union men outnumbered the secessionists and 
held these states in the Union. When Virginia seceded, the 
western counties refused to leave the Union, and in 1863 were 
admitted into the Union as the state of West Virginia. 

1 Read "Inside Sumter in '61" in Battles and Leaders of the Civil ]Virr, 
Vol. I, pp. 65-78. 

- Read "War Preparations in the North" in Battles and Leaders of the 
Civil War, Vol. I, pp. 85-98; on pp. 149-159, also, read "Going to the Front." 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1863 



357 



The Dividing Line. — The first call for troops was soon fol- 
lowed by a second. The responses to both were so prompt that 
by July 1, 1861, more than one hundred and eighty thousand 
Union soldiers were under arms. Tliey were stationed at 
various points along a line that stretched from Norfolk in Vir- 
ginia up the Chesapeake Bay and Potomac River to Harpers 
Ferry, and then across western Virginia, Kentucky, and Mis- 
souri. South of this dividing line were the Confederate armies.^ 

Geographically this line was cut into three sections : that 
in Virginia, that in Kentucky, and that in Missouri. 

Bull Run. — General Winfield Scott was in command of the 
Union army. Under him and in command of the troops about 
Washington was Gen- 
eral McDowell, wlio in 
July, 1861, was sent to 
drive back the Confed- 
erate line in Virginia. 
Marching a few miles 
southwest, McDowell 
met General Beaure- 
gard near Manassas, 
and on the field of Bull 
Run was beaten and 
his army put to flight. ^ 
The battle taught the North that the war would not end in three 
months ; that an army of raw troops was no better than a mob ; 
that discipline was as necessary as patriotism. Thereafter men 
were enlisted for three years or for the war. 

1 An interesting account of " Scenes in Virginia in '61" may be found in 
Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. I, pp. 160-lfi6. 

'- "The Confederate army was more disorganized by victory than that of 
the United States by defeat," says General Johnston ; and no pursuit of the 
Union forces was made. " The larger part of the men," McDowell telegraphed 
to Washington, "are a confused mob, entirely disorganized." None .stopped 
short of the fortifications along the Potomac, and numbers entered Washington. 
Read Battles and Leaders of the Civil War. Vol. I, pp. 220-239. " I have no 
idea that the North will give it up," wrote Stephens, Vice President of the Con- 
federacy. " Their defeat will increase their energy." He was right. 




Stone bridge over Bull Run. 

Crossed bv inaiiv tit'ciiiij t'liioii men. 



35S 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



General George B. McClellan ^ was now put in command of 
the Union Army of the Potomac, and spent the rest of 1861, 
and the early months of 18H2, in drilling his raw volunteers. 

Confederate Line in Kentucky Driven back, 1862. — In Ken- 
tucky the Confederate line stretched across the southern part 
of tlie state as shown on the map. Against this General 
Thomas was sent in Januar}^ 1862. He defeated the Con- 
federates at Mill Springs near the eastern end. In Fel)ruary 




Driving back the Confederate line in the West. 

General U. S. Grant and Flag-Officer Foote were sent to attack, 
by land and water. Forts Donelson and Henry near the west- 
ern end of the line. Foote arrived first at Fort Henry on the 
Tennessee and captured it. Thereupon Grant marched across 

1 George Brinton McClellan was born in Philadelphia in 1826, graduated 
from West Point, served in the Mexican War, and resigned from the army in 
1857, to become a civil engineer, bnt rejoined it at the opening of the vsrar. 
In July. 18()1, he conducted a successful campaign against the Confederates in 
West Virginia, and his victories there vi^ere the cause of his promotion to com- 
mand the Array of the Potomac. After the battle of Antietam (p. 3(58) he 
took no further part in the war, and finally resigned in 1864. From 1878 to 
1881 he was governor of New Jersey. He died in 1885. 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1863 



359 



country to Fort Donelson on the Cumberland, a-nd after three 
days' sharp fighting' forced General Buckner to surrender. ^ 
Shiloh or Pittsburg Landing. — The Confederate line was 



now broken, and abandoning 
Confederates fell back toward 
Corinth in Mississippi. The 
Union army followed in three 
parts. 

1. One under General 
Curtis moved to southwest- 
ern Missouri and won a bat- 
tle at Pea Ridge (Arkansas). 

2. Another under Gen- 
eral Pope on the banks of 
the jNIississippi aided Flag- 
Officer Foote in the capture 
of Island No. lO.^ The fleet 
then passed down the river 
and took Fort Pillow. 



Nashville and Columbus, the 




Ulysses S. Grant. 



3. The third part under Grant took position very near 
Pittsburg Landing, at Shil()h,3 where it was attacked and driven 

1 Hiram Ulysses Grant was born in Ohio in 1822, and at seventeen entered 
West Point, where his name was registered Ulysses S. Grant, and as such he was 
ever after known. He served in tlie Mexican AVar, and afterward engaged in 
business of various sorts till the opening of the Civil War, when he was made 
colonel of the Twenty-first Illinois Regiment, and then commander of the dis- 
trict of southeast Missouri. When General Buckner, wlio commanded at Fort 
Donelson, wrote to Grant to know what terms he would offer. Grant replied : 
"No terms except unconditional and immediate surrender can be accepted. I 
propose to move immediately upon your works." This won for Grant the pop- 
ular name " Unconditional Surrender" Grant. 

Andrew H. Foote was born in Connecticut in 1806, entered the navy at 
sixteen, and when the war opened, was made flag officer of the Western navy. 
His gunboats were like huge rafts carrying a house with flat roof and sloping sides 
that came down to tlie water's edge. The sloping sides and ends were covered 
with iron plates and pierced for guns ; three in the bow, two in the stern, and four 
on each side. The huge wlieel in the stern which drove the boat was under cover ; 
but the smoke stacks were unprotected. Foote died in 186:1, a rear admiral. 

- The islands in the Mississippi are numbered from the mouth of the Ohio 
River to New Orleans. 

3 Read Battles and Leaders of the C'icil War, Vol. I, pp. 465-486. 



360 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



back. But the next day, being strongly reenforced, General 
Grant beat the Confederates, who retreated to Corinth. General 
Halleck now took command, and having united 'the second and 
third parts of the army, took Corinth and cut off Memphis, 
which then surrendered to the fleet in the river. 

Bragg's Raid. — And now the Confederates turned furiously. 
Their army under General Bragg, starting from Chattanooga, 

rushed across Tennessee 
and Kentucky toward 
Louisville, but after a hot 
fight witli General Buell's 
army at Perryville was 
forced to turn back, and 
went into winter quarters 
at Murfreesboro.i 

There Bragg was at- 

Do 

tacked by the Union 
forces, now under General 
Rosecrans, was beaten in 
one of the most bloody 
battles of the war (Decem- 
ber 31,1862, and January 
2, 1863), and was forced 
to retreat further south. 

New Orleans, 1862. — 
Both banks of the Missis- 
si[)[)i as far south as the Arkansas were by this time in Union 
hands.^ South of that river on the east bank of the Mississippi 
the Confederates still held Vicksburg and Port Hudson (mai)s, 
pp. 353, 368). But New Orleans had .been captured in April, 

1 Farther west the Confederates attacked the Union army at Corinth, 
(October 4), but were defeated by General Kosecrans. 

2 In January, 1862, the Confederate line west of the Mississippi stretched 
from Belmont across southern Missouri to Indian Territory; but Grant drove the 
Confederates out of Belmont ; General Curtis, as we have seen, beat them at 
Pea Ridge (in March), and when the year ended, the Union army was in posses- 
sion of northern Arkansas. 




Northern cavalryman. 

A war-time drawing published in 1S63. 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1863 



361 



<|^ E N N„ S Y L -V-^aI nA 1 A--^ 

B»ttllll()lt,4:^\ -'^ 







/^(V'Wa^V 



•tXTTl^m^, 



18G2, by a naval exi^edition under Farragut; ^ and the city was 
occupied by a Union army under General Butler. ^ 

The Peninsular 
Campaign, 1862. — 
In the East the 
year oj)ened with 
great preparation 
for tlie capture of 
Richmond, the 
Confederate capi- 
tal. 

1. Armies un- 
der Fremont and 
Banks in the Shen- 
andoah valley were 
to i^revent an at- 
tack on Washing- 
ton from the west. 

2. An army 
under INIcDowell 
was to be ready to 

1 David G. Farragut was born in 1801, and wlien eleven years old served on the 
Essex in the War of 1812. When his fleet started up the Mississippi River, 
in 18()2, lie found his way to New Orleans blocked by two forts, St. Philip 
and Jackson, by chains across the river on hulks below Fort Jackson, and by a 
fleet of ironclad boats above. After bombarding the forts for six days, he cut 
the chains, ran by the forts, defeated the fleet, and went up to New Orleans, 
and later took Baton Rouge and Natchez. For the capture of New Orleans he 
received the thanks of Congress, and was made a rear admiral ; for his victory in 
Mobile Bay (p. .379) the rank of vice-admiral was created for him, and in 1806 a 
still higher rank, that of admiral, was made for him. He died in 1870. 

- When it was known in New Orleans that Farragut's fleet was coming, the 
cotton in the yards and in the cotton presses was hauled on drays to the levee and 
burned to prevent its falling into Union hands. The capture of the city had a 
great effect on Great Britain and France, both of whom the Confederates hoped 
would intervene to .stop the war. Slidell, who was in France seeking recogni- 
tion for the Confederacy as an independent nation, wrote that he had been led 
to believe '-that if New Orleans had not been taken and we suffered no very 
serious reverses in Virginia and Tennessee, our recognition would very soon 
have been declared." Read Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. II, pp. 
14-21, 91-94. 



20 40 60 80 100 



1 >tr; Noiiolk 



War in the East, 1862. 



362 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAL\ST SLAVERY 



march from Fredericksburg to Richmond, when tlie proper 
time came. 

3. McClellan was to take the largest army by water from 
Washington to Fort jNIonroe, and then march up the peninsida 
formed by the York and James rivers to the neighborhood of 
Richmond, where McDowell was to join him. 

Landing at the lower end of the peninsula early in April, 
McClellan moved northward to Yorktown, and captured it after 
a long siege. McClellan then hurried up the peninsula after 
the retreating enemy, and on the way fought and won a battle 
at Williamsburg. 

The Shenandoah Campaign, 1862. — It was now expected 
that McDowell, who had been guarding Washington, would join 
McClellan, but General T. J. Jackson ^ (Stonewall Jackson), 
who commanded the Confederate foi'ces in the Shenandoah, 

rushed down the valley and 
drove Banks across the Poto- 
mac into Maryland. This suc- 
cess alarmed the authorities at 
Washington, and McDowell 
was held in northern Virginia 
to protect the capital. Part of 
his troops, with those of Banks 
and Fremont, were dispatched 
against Jackson; but Jackson 
won several battles and made 
good his escape. 

End of Peninsular Campaign. 

^- -^— = — Though deprived of the aid 

Thomas J. Jackson. of McDowell, General McClellan 




1 The story of the march is interestingly told in "Recollections of a Pri- 
vate," in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. II, pp. 189-199. 

2 Thomas J. Jackson was born in West Virginia in 1824, graduated from 
West Point, served in the Mexican AVar, resigned from the army, and till 1861 
taught in the Virginia State Military Institute at Lexington. He then joined 
the Confederate army, and for the firm stand of his brigade at Bull Run gained 
the name of "Stonewall." 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1863 



363 



moved westward to within eight or ten miles of Richmond ; but 

the Confederate General J. E. Johnston now attacked him at 

Fair Oaks. A few weeks later General R. E. Lee,^ who had 

succeeded Johnston in command, was joined by Jackson; the 

Confederates then attacked 

McClellan at MechanicsvilK 

and Gaines Mill and forced 

him to retreat, fighting as lu 

went (June 26 to July 1), lo 

Harrisons Landing on tin 

James River. There the Union 

army remained till August 

when it went back by wat' i 

to the Potomac. 

Lee's Raid ; Battle of Antie- 
tam, 1862. — Tlie departure 
of the Union army from Har- 
risons Landing left General 
Lee free to do as he chose, 
and seizing the opportunity 
he turned against the Union 
forces under General Pope, whose army was drawn up be- 
tween Cedar Mountain and Fredericksburg, on the Rappahan- 
nock River. Stonewall Jackson first attacked General Banks 
at the western end of the line at Cedar Mountain, and bent him. 
Jackson and Lee then fell upon General Pope on the old field 
of Ball Run, beat him, and forced him to fall back to Washing- 
ton, where his army was united with that of McClellan.^ This 
done, Lee crossed the Potomac and entered ^Liryland. McClel- 

^ Robert E. Lee was born in Virginia in 1807, a son of "Light Horse" 
Harry Lee of tlae Revolutionary army. He was a graduate of West Point, and 
served in the Mexican War. After Virginia seceded he left the Union army and 
was appointed a major general of Virginia troops, and in 1862 became commander 
in chief. At the end of the war he accepted the presidency of Washington 
College (now Washington and Lee University), and died in Lexington, Virginia, 
in 1870. 

2 Part of McClellan's army had joined Pope before the second battle of 
Bull Run. 




Robert E. Lee. 



364 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

Ian attacked him at Antietam Creek (September, 1862), where 
a bloody battle was fought (sometimes called the battle of 
Sharpsburg). Lee was beaten ; but McClellan did not prevent 
his recrossing the Potomac into Virginia. ^ 

Fredericksburg, 1862. — McClellan was now removed, and 
General A. E. Burnside put in command. The Confederates 
meantime had taken position on Marye's Heights on the south 
side of the Rappahannock, behind Fredericksburg. The posi- 
tion was impregnable ; but in December Burnside attacked it 
and was repulsed with dreadful slaughter. The two armies 
then went into winter quarters with the Rappahannock between 
them. 

The Emancipation Proclamation. — Ever since the opening 
of the year 18(32, the question of slavery in the loyal states and 
in the territories had been constantly before Congress. In 
April Congress abolished slavery in the District of Columbia 
and set free the slaves there with compensation to the owners. 
In June it abolished slavery in the territories and freed the 
slaves there without compensation to the owners, and in July 
authorized the seizure of slaves of persons then in rebellion. 

In March Lincoln had asked Congress to help pay for the 
slaves in the loyal slave states, if these states would abolish 
slavery ; but neither Congress nor the states adopted the plan.^ 
Lincoln now determined, as an act of war, to free the slaves in 
the Confederate states, and when the armies of Lee and McClellan 
stood face to face at Antietam, he decided, if Lee was beaten, 
to issue an emancipation proclamation. Lee was beaten, and 
on September 22, 1862, the proclamation came forth declaring 
that on January 1, 1863, " all persons held as slaves " in any 
state or part of a state then "in rebellion against the United 
States, shall be then, thenceforth, and forever free." The 
Confederate states did not return to their allegiance, and on 

1 Read " A Woman's Recollections of Antietam," in Battles and Leaders of 
the Civil War, Vol. II, pp. 686-695 ; also O. W. Holmes's My Hunt after ''The 
Captain.'''' 

- West Virginia and Missouri later (1863) provided for gradual emancipation, 
and Maryland (1864) adopted a constitution that abolished slavery. 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1861-1863 365 



■^. 



January 1, 1863, a second proclamation was issued, declaring 
the slaves within the Confederate lines to be free men. 

Part of the autograph copy of Lincoln's proclamation of January i, 1863. 

1. Lincoln did not abolish slavery anywhere. He eman- 
cipated certain slaves. 

2. His proclamation did not apply to the loyal slave states 
— Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Kentucky, Missouri. 

3. It did not apply to such Confederate territory as the 
Union armies had conquered; namely, Tennessee, seven counties 
in Virginia, and thirteen parishes in Louisiana. 

4. Lincoln freed the slaves by virtue of his authority as 
commander in chief of the LTnion armies, "and as a fit and 
necessary war measure." 

SUMMARY 

1. In 1860 and 1861 seven cotton states seceded, formed the Confed- 
erate States of America, and elected Jefferson Davis President. 

2. The capture of Fort Sumter (April, 1861) and Lincoln's call for troops 
vs^ere followed by the secession of four more Southern states. 

3. In 1861 an attempt was made to drive back the Confederate line in 
Virginia; but this ended in disaster at the battle of Bull Run. 

4. In 1862 the Peninsular Campaign failed, Pope was defeated at Bull 
Run, Lee's invasion of Maryland was ended by the battle of Antietam, and 
Burnside met defeat at Fredericksburg. 

5. In the West in 1862 the Confederate line was forced back to northern 
Mississippi, and New Orleans was captured. Great battles were fought at 
Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Perryville, and Murfreesboro. 

6. On January 1, 1863, President Lincoln declared free the slaves in the 
states and parts of states held by the Confederates. 

McM. BRIEF 22 



CHAPTER XXIX 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1863-18G5 



P E -N._(, N ^^^/ L V A^>S|--H*-^A 

A,- r ^•■vy^ J ^' ^ ^^ 




w. y, 

/Mitlill.nnMi 

TFpfis.n'i'ij;; 



'Xc'« M^iki' 



/-' 



A ---, ANNAf'OLISf; 



■-', -^--^^ 



The Gettysburg Campaign, 1863. —After the defeat at Fred- 
ericksburg, Barnside was removed, and General Hooker put 
in command of the Army of the Potomac. "lighting Joe," as 

Hooker was called, led 
his army of 130,000 
men against Lee and 
Jackson, and after a 
stubborn fight at Chan- 
cellorsville (May 1-4, 
1863) was beaten and 
fell back.i In June 
Lee once more took the 
offensive, rushed down 
the Shenandoah valley 
to the Potomac River, 
crossed Maryland, and 
entered Pennsylvania 
with the Army of tlie 
Potomac in hot j)ur- 
suit. On reaching Mary- 
land General Hooker 
was removed and Gen- 
eral Meade put in com- 
mand. 



^'-m^.M 







War in the East, 1863-65. 



On the lulls at Gett3'sburg, Pennsylvania, the two armies 
met, and there (July 1-3) Lee attacked Meade. The struggle 

1 Jackson was mortally wounded by a volley from his own men, who mis- 
took him and his escort for Union cavalry, in the dusk of evening of the second 
day at Cliancellorsville. His last words were : " Let us cross over the river and 
rest under the shade of the trees." 

3(36 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1863-1865 



367 



was desperate. About one fourth of the men engaged were 
killed or wounded. But the splendid valor of the Union army- 
prevailed, and Lee was beaten and forced to return to Virginia, 
where he remained unmolested till the spring of 1864.1 The 
battle of Gettysburg ended Lee's plan for carrying the war into 
the North, and from the losses on that field his army never 
fully recovered. 2 




-U^.- 



(7' 



^ ^ ^j -. .- ■ _j - Y^''- 






3 - V 



-V-^^>M^¥-'^'^'' 









'M^% 



*U.xM;^^^^^^^^ 






i^.^ 






'^'^1%'" 



Battle of Gettysburg. Contemporary drawing. 

1 Read " The Third Day at Gettysburg" in Battles and Leaders of the Civil 
War, Vol. Ill, pp. 369-o8j. The field of Gettysburg is now a national park 
dotted with monuments erected in memory of the dead, and marking the posi- 
tions of the regiments and spots where desperate fighting occurred. Near by is 
a national cemetery in which are interred several thousand Union soldiers. Read 
President Lincoln's beautiful Gettijsliurg Address. 

" With the exception of a small body of regulars, the Union armies were 
composed of volunteers. When it became apparent that the war would not end 
in a few months, Congress passed a Draft Act : whenever a congressional district 
failed to furnish the required number of volunteers, the names of able-bodied 
men not already in the army were to be put into a box, and enough names to 
complete the number were to be drawn out by a blindfolded man. In July, 
1868, when this was done in New York city, a riot broke out and for several 
days the city was mob-ruled. Negroes were killed, property was destroyed, and 
the rioters were not put down till troops were sent by the government. 



368 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 




The Vicksburg campaign. 



Vicksburg, 1863. — In 

January, 1863, the Confed- 
erates held the Mississippi 
River oidy from Vicksburg 
to Port Hudson. The cap- 
ture of these two towns 
wouki complete the opening 
of the river. Grant, there- 
fore, determined to capture 
Vicksburg. The town stands 
on the top of a bkiff which 
rises straight and steep from 
the river, and had been so 
strongly fortified on the land 
side that to take it seemed 
impossible. (irant, having 
failed in a direct advance 
through Mississip[)i, cut a 
canal across a bend in the river, on the west bank, hipping to 
divert the waters and get a passage by the town. This, too, 
failed ; and he then de- 
cided to cross below Vicks- 
burg and attack by land. 
To aid him, Admiral 
Porter ran his gunboats 
past the town on a niglit 
in April and carried the 
arni}^ across the river. 
Landing on tlie east bank. 
Grant won a victory at 
Port Gibson, and hearing 
that J. E. Johnston was 
coming to help Pemberton, 
pushed in between tliem, 
beat Johnston, and turning against Pemberton drove him into 
Vicksburg. After a siege of seven weeks, in which Vicksburg 



\* J^^ 




^^^\ 






P 


r. r 


1 


HP? 


*'-3l"S^^ 






T^: ' 




... 


., 



Granfs headquarters near Vick.siuHi; 
From a recent jihotcifjrapli. 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1863-1865 



369 



suffered severely from bombardment and famine, Pemberton 
surrendered the town and army July 4, 1863. 

In less than a week (July 9) Port Hudson surrendered, 
the Mississippi was opened from source to mouth, and the Con- 
federacy was cut in two. 

Cliickamauga, 1863. — Wliile Grant was besieging Vicks- 
burg, Rosecrans forced a Confederate army under Bragg to 
quit its j)osition south of Murfreesboro, and then to leave 
Chattanooga and retire into northern Georgia. There Bragg 



I.,- Bay '^^ 

.E\i?atieth City 




arleston 
umter 

/\*i':nt Royal 

Savannah 

Fol-t McAllister 



SCALE OF MILES 



War in the West, 1863-65, and on the coast. 

was reen forced, and he then attacked Rosecrans in the Cliicka- 
mauga valley (September 19 and 20, 1863), where was fought 
one of the most desperate battles of the war. The Union right 
wing was driven from the field, but the left wing under Gen- 
eral Thomas held the enemy in check and saved the army from 
rout. By his firmness Thomas won the name of " the Rock of 
Cliickamauga." 

Chattanooga. — Rosecrans now went back to Chattanooga. 
Bragg followed, and, taking position on the hills and mountains 
which surround the town on the east and south, shut in the 
Union army and besieged it. Hooker was sent from Virginia 



370 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 




William T. Sherman. 



with more troops, Sherman^ 
brought an army from Vicks- 
burg, Rosecraiis was rephiced 
by Thomas, and Grant was put 
in command of all. Then mat- 
ters changed. The troops un- 
der Thomas (November 23) 
seized some low hills at the 
foot of Missionary Ridge, east 
of Chattanooga. Hooker (No- 
vember 24) carried the Con- 
federate works on Lookout 
Mountain, southwest of the 
town, in a fight often called 
"the Battle above the Clouds." 
Sherman (November 24 and 25) attacked the northern end 
of Missionary Ridge. Thomas (November 25) thereu})on car- 

1 William Tecnmseh Sher- 
man was born in Ohio in 1820, 
graduated from West Point, 
and served in the Seminole 
and Mexican wars. He be- 
came a banker in San Fran- 
cisco, then a lawyer in Kansas, 
in 1860 superintendent of a 
military school in Louisiana, 
and then president of a street 
car company in St. Louis. Li 
1861 he was appointed colonel 
in the regular army. He 
fought at Bull Run, was made 
brigadier general of volunteers, 
and was transferred to the 
West, where he rose rapidly. 
After the war, Grant was made 
general of the army, and Sher- 
man lieutenant general ; and 
when Grant became President. 
Sherman was promoted to the 
rank of general. He was re- 
tired in 1884 and died in 1891 
at New York. Charging up Missionary RiJge 




THE CIVIL WAR, 1863-1865 



371 



ried the heiglits of Missionary Ridge, and drove off the enemy. 
Bragg retreated to Dalton in northwestern Georgia, where the 
command of his army was given to General J. E. Johnston. 

The Plan of Campaign, 1864. — The Confederates had now 
bnt two great armies left. One under Lee was lying quietly 
behind the Rappahannock and Rapidan rivers, protecting 
Richmond ; the other under J. E. Johnston 1 was at Dalton, 
Georgia. The two generals chosen to lead the Union 
armies against these forces were Grant and 
Sherman. Grant (now lieutenant general and 
in command of all the armies) witli the Army 
of the Potomac was to drive Lee back and take 
Richmond. Sherman with the forces under 
Thomas, ^NlcPherson, and Schofield was to at- 
tack Johnston and enter Georgia. The L^nion 
soldiers outnnnd)ered the Confederates. 

Marching through Georgia. — On ^lay 4, 
18G4. accordingly, Sherman moved forward 
against Johnston, flanked him out of Dalton, 
and drove him, step by step, through the mountains to Atlanta. 
Johnston's retreat forced Sherman to weaken his army l)y 
leaving guards in the rear to protect the railroads on which he 
depended for supplies ; Johnston intended to attack when he 
could fight on equal terms. But his retreat displeased Davis, 
and at Atlanta he was replaced by General Hood, who was ex- 
pected to fight at once. 

In July Hood made three furious attacks, Avas repulsed, 
and in September left Atlanta and started northward. His 
purpose was to draw Sherman out of Georgia, but Sherman 




Joseph E. Johnston. 



1 Joseph Eggleston Johnston was born in Virginia in 1807, graduated from 
West Point, and served in the Black Hawk, Seminole, and Mexican wars. When 
the Civil War opened, he joined the Confederacy, was made a major general, and 
with Beauregard commanded at the first battle of Bull Run. Johnston was next 
put in charge of the operations against McCiellan (1862) ; but was wounded at 
Fair Oaks and succeeded by Lee. In 1863 he was sent to relieve Vicksburg, 
but failed. In 1864 he was put in command of Bragg's army after its defeat, 
and so became opposed to Sherman. 



372 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



sent Thomas with part of the army into Tennessee, and after 
folk) wing" Hood for a while, ^ tnrned back to Atlanta. 

After partly burning the town, Slierman started for the 
seacoast in November, tearing up the railroads, burning 
bridges, and living on the country as he went.^ In December 
Fort McAllister was taken and Savannah 
occupied. 

Grant and Lee in Virginia, 1864. — On the 
same day in May, 18G4, on which Sherman set 
out to attack Johnston in Georgia, tlie Army 
(»f the Potomac began the campaign in Vir- 
ginia. General Meade was in command ; but 
Grant, as commander in chief of all the Union 
armies, directed the campaign in person. 
Crossing the Rapidan, the army entered the 
Wilderuess, a stretch of country covered with 
dense woods of oak and pine and thick under- 
growth. Lee attacked, and for several days 
the fighting was almost incessant. But Grant 
pushed on to Spottsylvania Court House and 
to Cold Harbor, where bloody battles were 
fought ; and then went south of Richmond 
and besieged Petersburg.^ 




Rail twisted around 
pole by Sher- 
man's men. 

In the possession of 
the Long Island 
Historical Society. 



1 Early in October Hood had reached Dallas on his way to Tennessee. From 
Dallas he sent a division to capture a garrison and depots at Allatooiia, com- 
manded by General Corse. Sherman, who was following Hood, comnninicated 
with Corse from the top of Kenesaw Mountain by signals ; and Corse, though 
greatly outnumbered, held the fort and drove off the enemy. On this incident 
was founded the popular hymn Hold the Fort, for I am Coming. 

2 To destroy the railroads so they could not be quickly rebuilt, the rails, 
heated red-hot in fires made of burning ties, were twisted around trees or telegraph 
poles. Stations, machine shops, cotton bales, cotton gins and presses were burned. 
Along the line of march, a strip of country sixty miles wide was made desolate. 

3 While the siege of Petersburg was under way, a tunnel was dug and a mine 
exploded under a Confederate work called Elliott's Salient (July 80, 18(54). As 
soon as the mass of flying earth, men, guns, and carriages had settled, a body of 
Union troops moved forward through the break thus made in the enemy's line. 
But the assault was badly managed. The Confederates rallied, and the Union 
forces were driven back into the crater made by the explosion, where many were 
killed and 1400 captured. 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1863-1865 



373 



Early's Raid, 1864. — Lee now sought to divert Grant 
an attack on Washington, and sent General Early down 
Shenandoah valley. Early crossed " 
the Potomac, entered Maryland, 
won a battle at the Monocacy 
River, and actually tlireatened the 
defenses of Washington, but was 
forced to retreat. ^ 

To stop these attacks Grant sent 
Sheridan'-^ into the valley, where 
he defeated Early at Winchester 
and at Fishers Hill and again at 
Cedar Creek. It was during this 
last battle that Sheridan made his 
famous ride from Winchester. ^ 



by 

the 




Philip H. Sheridan, 



1 On October 19, 1864, St. Albans, a town in Vermont near tlie Canadian 
border, was raided by Confederates from Canada. They seized all the horses 
they could find, robbed the banks, and escaped. A little later the jieofjle of 
Detroit were excited by a rumor that their city was to be raided on ( )ctober 30. 
Great preparations for defense were made ; but no enemy came. 

- Philip H. Sheridan was born at Albany, New York, in 1831, graduated 
from West Point, and was in Missouri when the war opened. In 18()2 lie was 
given a command in the cavalry, fought in the West, and before the year closed 
was made a brigadier and tlien major general for gallantry in action. At 
Chattanooga he led the charge up Missionary Ridge. After the war he be- 
came lieutenant general and then general of tlie army, and died in 1888. 

3 Sheridan had spent the night at Winchester, and as he rode toward his 
camp at Cedar Creek, he met such a crowd of wagons, fugitives, and wounded 
men that he was forced to take to the fields. At Newtown, the streets 
were so crowded he could not pass through them. Kiding around tlie village, 
he met Captain McKinley (afterward President), who, says Sheridan, "spread 
the news of my return through the motley throng tliere." Between Newtown 
and Middletown he met "the only troops in the presence of and resisting the 
enemy. . . . Jumping my horse over the line of rails, I rode to the crest of the 
elevation and . . . the men rose up from behind their barricade with cheers of 
recognition." When he rode to another part of the field, "a line of regimental 
flags rose up out of the ground, as it seemed, to welcome me." With these flags 
was Colonel Hayes (afterward President). Hurrying to another place, he came 
upon some divisions marching to the front. When the men "saw me, they be- 
gan cheering and took up the double-quick to the front." Crossing the pike, he 
rode, hat in hand, "along the entire line of infantry," shouting, "We are all 
right. . . . Never mind, boys, we'll whip them yet. We shall sleep in our 
quarters to-night." And they did. Kead Sheridan'' s Ride by T. Buchanan Head. 



374 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

The Situation early in 1865. — By 1865, Union fleets and 
armies had seized many Confederate strongholds on the coast. 
In the West, Thomas had destroyed Hood's army in the great 
battle of Nashville (December, 18G4). In the East, Grant was 
steadily pressing the siege of Petersburg and Richmond, and 
Sherman was making ready to advance northward from Savan- 
nah. The cause of the Confederacy was so desperate that in 
February, 1865, Alexander H. Stephens, Vice President of the 
Confederate States, was sent to meet Lincoln and Secretary 
Seward and discuss terms of peace. Lincoln demanded three 
things : the disbanding of the Confederate armies, the submis- 
sion of the seceded states to the rule of Congress, and tlie 
abolition of slavery. The terms were not accepted, and the war 
went on. 

Sherman marches northward, 1865. — After resting for a 
month at Savannah, Sherman started northward through South 
Carolina, (February 17) entered Columbia, the capital of the 
state, and forced the Confederates to evacuate Charleston. To 
oppose him, a new army was organized and put under the com- 
mand of Johnston. But Sherman pressed on, entered North 
Carolina, and reached Goldsboro in safet3\ 

The Surrender of Lee, 1865. — Early in April, Lee found him- 
self unable to hold Richmond and Petersburg any longer. He 
retreated westward. Grant followed, and on April 9, 1865, Lee 
surrendered at Appomattox Court House, seventy-five miles 
west of Richmond.^ 

Fall of the Confederacy. — The Confederacy then went rap- 
idly to pieces. Johnston surrendered to Sherman near Raleigh 
on April 26 ; Jefferson Davis was captured at Irwinville, 
Georgia, on May 10, and the Avar on land was over.^ 

Reelection of Lincoln. — While the war was raging, the time 
again came to elect a President and Vice President. The Re- 
publicans nominated Lincoln and Andrew Johnson. The Demo- 

1 Read Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. IV, pp. 729-746. 

2 On the flight of Davis from Richmond, read Battles and Leaders of the 
Civil War, Vol. IV, pp. 762-767 ; or the Century/ Maijazine, November, 1883. 



THE CIVIL WAR, 1863-1865 375 

crats selected General McClellaii and George H. Pendleton. 
Lincoln and Johnson were elected and on March 4, 1865, were 
inaugurated. 

Death of Lincoln. — On the night of April 1-t, the fourth 
anniversary of the day on which Anderson marched out of 
Fort Sumter, while Lincoln was seated with his wife and some 
friends in a box at Ford's Theater in Washington, he was shot 
by an actor who had stolen up behind him.^ The next morning 
he died, and Andrew Jolnison became President. 

' After firing the shot, the assassin waved his pistol and shouted " Sic semper 
tyrannis " — '• Thus be it ever to tyrants " (the motto of the state of Virginia) — 
and jumped from tlie box to the stage. But his spur caught in an American flag 
which draped the box, and he fell and broke his leg. Limping off the stage, he 
fled from the theater, mounted a horse in waiting, and escaped to Virginia. 
There he was found hidden in a barn and shot. The body of the Martyr Presi- 
dent was borne from Washington to Springfield, by tlie route he took when com- 
ing to his first inauguration in 1861. Read Walt Whitman's poem My Captain. 

SUMMARY 

1. In 1863, Lee repulsed an advance by Hooker's army, and invaded 
Pennsylvania, but was defeated by Meade at Gettysburg. 

2. In the West, Grant took Vicksburg, and the Mississippi was opened 
to the sea. The Confederates defeated Rosecraus at Chickaniauga, but 
were defeated by Grant and other generals at Chattanooga. 

3. In 1864, Grant moved across Virginia, after much hard fighting, and 
besieged Petersburg and Richmond, and Sherman marched across Georgia 
to Savannah. 

4. In 1865, Sherman marclied northward into Xortli Carolina, and 
Grant forced Lee to leave Richmond and surrender. 

5. In 1864, Lincoln was reelected. 

6. In April, 1865, Lincoln was assassinated and Johnson became 
President. 




Sharpshooter's rifle used in the Civil War. 

With telescope sight. Weight, 32 lb. 



CHAPTER XXX 



THE NAVY IN THE WAR; LIFE IN WAR TIMES 




Sinking the Petrel. Ci)iitem|)oiary drawing 



The Southern Coast Blockade. — The naval war began with 

a proclamation of Davis offering commissions to privateers,^ 

and two by Lincoln 
(April 19 and 27, 
1861), declaring the 
coa^'t blockaded from 
Virginia to Texas. 

The object of the 
blockade was to cut 
off the foreign trade 
of the Southern states, 
and to prevent their 
getting supplies of all 
sorts. But as Great 

Britain was one of the chief consumers of Southern cotton, and 

was, indeed, dependent on the 

Soutli for lier supply, it was 

certain that unless the block- 
ade was made effective by 

many Union ships, cotton 

would be carried out of the 

Southern ports, and supplies 

run into tliem, in spite of 

Lincoln's proclamation. 

Running the Blockade. — 

This is just what was done. 

1 Tlie first Confederate privateer to get to sea was tlie Savannah. She took 
one prize and was captured. Anotlier, tlie Beauregard., was talten after a short 
cruise. A third, the Petrel, mistook the frigate St. Lawrence for a merchant- 
man and attempted to take her, but was sunk by a broadside. After a year the 
blockade stopped privateering. 




Cartoon published in 1861. 



THE NAVY IN THE WAR 377 

Goods of all sorts were brought from Great Britain to the city of 
Nassau in the Bahama Islands (map, p. 353). There the goods 
were placed on board blockade runners and started for Wil- 
mington in North Carolina, or for Charleston. So nicely would 
the voyage be timed that the vessel would be off the port some 
niglit when the moon did not shine. Then, with all lights out, 
the runner would dash through the line of blockading ships, 
and, if successful, would by daylight be safe in port. The 
cargo landed, cotton would be taken on board ; and the first 
dark niglit, or during a storm, the runner, again breaking the 
blockade, would steam back to Nassau. 

The Trent Affair. — Great Britain and France promptly 
acknowledged tlie Confederate States as belligerents. This 
gave them the same rights in the ports of Great Britain and 
France as our vessels of war. Hoping to secure a recognition 
of independence from these countries, the Confederate govern- 
ment sent iVIason and Slidell to Europe. These two commis- 
sioners ran the blockade, went to Havana, and boarded the 
British mail steamship Trent. Captain Wilkes of the United 
States man-of-war San Jacinto^ hearing of this, stopped the 
Trent and took off Mason and Slidell. Intense excitement 
followed in our country and in Great Britain,^ which at once 
demanded their release and prepared for war. They were re- 
leased, and the act of Wilkes was disavowed as an exercise of 
"• the right of search " which we had always resisted when exer- 
cised by Great Britain, and which had been one of the causes 
of the War of 1812. 

The Cruisers. — While the commerce of the Confederacy 
was almost destroyed by the blockade, a fleet of Confederate 
cruisers attacked the commerce of the Union. 

The most famous of these, the Florida^ Alabama, Georgia, 

1 Captain Wilkes was congTatulated by tlie Secretary of the Navy, tiianked 
by the House of Representatives, and given a grand banquet in Boston ; and the 
whole country was jubilant. The British minister at Washington was directed 
to demand the liberation of the prisoners and "a suitable apology for the ag- 
gres'^ion," and if not answered in seven days, or if unfavorably answered, was 
to return to London at once. 



378 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



and Shenandoah,^ were built or purchased in Great Britain for 
the Confederacy, and were suffered to put to sea in spite of the 
protests of the United States minister. Once on the ocean they 
cruised from sea to sea, destroying every merchant vessel under 
our flag that came in their way. 

One of them, the Alabama, sailed the ocean unliarmed for 

two years. She cruised in 
the North Atlantic, in the 
-\^ Gulf of Mexico, in the Car- 
ibbean Sea, off the coast of 
Brazil, went around the Cape 
of Good Hope, entered the 
China Sea, came again around 
the Cape of Good Hope, and 
by way of Brazil and the 
Azores to Cherbourg in 
France. During the cruise 
she destroj'cd over sixty mer- 
chantmen. At Cherbourg the 
Alabama was found by the 
United States cruiser Kear- 
sarge, and one Sunday morn- 
ing in June, 1864, the two 
met in battle off the coast of 
France, and the Alabama was 
sunk. 2 




Shell lodged in the stern post of the 
Kearsarge. 

Now ill the Ordnance Museum, Wasliington 
Navv Yard. 



1 Early in the war an agent was sent to Great Britain by the Confederate navy 
department to procure vessels to be used as commerce destroyers. The Florida 
and Alahamn were built at Liverpool and sent to sea unarmed. Their guns and 
anununition were sent in vessels from another British port. The Shenandoah 
was purchased at London (her name was then the Sea King) and was met at 
Madeira by a tender from Liverpool with men and guns. On her way to Australia, 
the Shennndoah destroyed seven of our merchantmen. She then went to Bering 
8ea and in one week captured twenty-five whalers, most of which she destroyed. 
This was in June, 1865, after the war was over. In August a British ship cap- 
tain informed the commander of the Shenandoah that the Confederacy no longer 
existed. The Shenandoah was then taken to Liverpool and delivered to the 
British government, which turned her over to the United States. 

2 Read Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. IV, pp. 000-614. 



THE NAVY IN THE WAR 



379 



Operations along the Coast. — Besides blockading the coast, 
the Union navy captured or aided in capturing forts, cities, and 
water ways. The forts at the entrance to Pamlico Sound and 
Port Royal were captured in 1861. Control of the waters of Pam- 
lico and Albemarle ^ sounds was secured in 1862 by the capture 
of Roanoke Island, Elizabeth City, Newbern, and Fort Macon 
(map, p. 369). In 1863 Fort Sumter was battered down in a 
naval attack on Charleston. In 1861 Farragut led his fleet into 
Mobile Bay (in southern Alal)ama), destroyed the Confederate; 
fleet, captured the forts at the entrance to the bay, and thus 
cut the city of Mobile off from tlie sea. In 1865 Fort Fisher, 
which guarded the entrance to Ca[)e Fear River, on whicli was 
AVilmington, fell before a combined attack by land and naval 
forces. 

On the Inland Waters. — On the great waterways of the 
West the notable deeds of tlie navy were the c<i])ture of Fort 
Henry on the Tennes- 



see by Foote's flotilla 
(p. 35.8), the capture of 
New Orleans by Farragut 
(p. 361), and the run of 
Porter's fleet past the 
batteries at Vicksburg 
(p. 368). 

The Monitor and the 
Merrimac. — But the most ^"^ °* ^''''''' 2"'^'°"*^ ^^'^'""^ Vicksburg. 
famous of all the naval engagements was that of the 3fonitor 
and the 3Ierrunac in 1862. When the war opened, there were 
at the navy yard at Norfolk, Virginia, a quantity of guns, stores, 
supplies, and eleven vessels. The officer in command, fearing 

1 In 18(U a Confederate ironclad ram, tlie Alhpmarle, appeared on tlie 
waters of Albemarle Sound. As we liad no vessel that could harm her, Com- 
mander W. B. Cushnig planned an expedition to destroy her by a torpedo. On 
the night of October 27, with fourteen companions in a steam launch, he made 
his way to the ram, blew her up with the torpedo, and with one other man 
escaped. His adventures on the way back to the fleet read like fiction, and are 
told by himself in Battles and Leaders of the Civil War, Vol. IV, pp. 6;]4-640. 




380 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



that they would fall into Confederate hands, set fire to the 
houses, shops, and vessels, and abandoned the place. One of 
the vessels which was burned to the water's edge and sunk was 
the steam frigate Merrimac. Finding her hull below the 
water line unhurt, tlie Confederates raised the 'Merrimac^ 
turned lier into an ironclad ram, renamed her Virginia, and 
sent her forth to destroy a squadron of United States vessels 
at anchor in Hampton Rixids (at the mouth of the James River). 
Steaming across the roads one day in March, 1862, the Mer- 
rimac rammed and sank the Cxmherland^ forced the Congress 

to surrender, and set her 
on fire. This done, the 
Merrimac withdrew, in- 
tending to resume the 
work of destruction on 
the morrow ; for her 
iron armor had proved 
to be ample protection 
against the guns of the 
Union ships. But the 
next morning, as she 
came near the Minne- 
sota, tlie strangest-looking craft afloat came forth to meet her. 
Jts deck was almost level with the water, and was plated with 
sheets of iron. In the center of the deck was an iron-plated 
cylinder which conld be revolved by machinery, and in this 
were two large guns. This was the Monitor,'^ which had arrived 




Merrimac and Monitor. 



1 The hole made in the Cumberland by the Mcrrbaac was "large enough 
for a man to enter." Through this tlie water poured in so rapidly that the sick, 
wounded, and many who were not disabled were carried down with the ship. 
After she sank, the flag at the masthead still waved above the water. Read 
Longfellow's poem The Cumberland. 

2 The Monitor was designed by John Ericsson, who was born in Sweden in 
1803. After serving as an engineer in the Swedish army, he went to England ; 
and then came to our country in 1839. He was the inventor of the first prac- 
tical screw propeller for steamboats, and by his invention of the revolving turret 
for war vessels he completely changed naval ai'chitecture. His name is con- 
nected with many great inventions. He died in 1889. 



THE NAVY IN THE WAR 381 

in the Roads the night before, and now came out from behind 
the 3Iinnesota to fight the Merrimac. During four Iiours the 
battle raged witli apparently no result ; then the Merrimac 
withdrew and the Monitor took her place beside the Mijinesota.^ 
This battle marks the doom of wooden naval vessels ; all the 
nations of the world were forced to build their navies anew. 

Finances of the War. — Four years of war on land and sea 
cost the people of the North an immense sum of money. To 
obtain tlie money Congress began (1861) by raising the tariff 
on imported articles ; by taxing all incomes of more than -f 800 a 
year ; and by levying a direct tax, which was apportioned among 
the states according to their population. ^ But the money 
from these sources was not sufficient, and (1862) an internal 
revenue tax was resorted to, and collected by stamp duties.^ 
Even this tax did not 3deld enough money, and the government 
was forced to borrow on the credit of the United States. Bonds 
were issued,* and then United States notes, called "greenbacks," 
were put in circulation and made legal tender; that is, every- 
body had to take them in payment of debts. ^ 

Money in War Time. — After the government began to issue 
paper money, the banks suspended specie payment, and all gold 
and silver coins, including the 3, 5, 10, 25, and 50 cent pieces, 
disappeared from circulation. The people were then without 
small change, and for a time postage stamps and " token " 
pieces of brass and copper were used instead. In March, 1863, 

1 When tlie Confederates evacuated Norfolk some months later, the 3Ierri- 
viac was blown up. The Manitnr. in December, 18(32, went down in a stm-m at sea. 

- As the right of a State to secede was not acknowledged, this direct tax of 
$20,000,000 was apportioned among the Confederate as well as among the Union 
states. The Confederate states, of course, did not pay their share. 

■5 Deeds, mortgages, bills of lading, bank checks, patent medicines, wines, 
liquors, tobacco, proprietary articles, and many other things were taxed. Be- 
tween 1862 and 1865 about $780,000,000 was raised in this way. 

* Between July 1, 1861, and August .31, 1865, bonds to the amount of 
$1,109,000,000 were issued and sold. 

5 The Legal Tender Act, which authorized the issue of greenbacks, was 
enacted in 1862, and two years later $449,000,000 were in circulation. The 
greenbacks could not be used to pay duties on imports or interest on the public 
debt, which were payable in specie. 

MCM. BRIEF 23 



382 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

however, Congress authorized the issue of $50,000,000 in paper 
fractional currency. ^ Both the greenbacks and the fractional 
currency were merely promises to pay money. As the govern- 
ment did not pay on demand, coin commanded a premium; that 
is, 'f 100 in gold or silver could be exchanged in the market 
(down till 1879) for more than -f 100 in paper money. 

National Banks. — Besides the paper money issued by the 
government there were in circulation several thousand different 
kinds of state bank notes. Some had no value, some a little 
value, and others were good for the sums (in greenbacks) ex- 
pressed on their faces. In order to replace these notes by a 
sound currency having the same value everywhere. Congress 
(1863) established the national banking system. Legally or- 
ganized banking associations were to purchase United States 
bonds and deposit thein with the government. Each bank so 
doing was then entitled to issue national bank notes to the 
value of ninety per cent^ of the bonds it had deposited. Many 
banks accepted these terms ; but it was not till (1865) after 
Congress taxed the notes of state banks tliat those notes were 
driven out of circulation. 

Cost of the War. — Just what the war cost can never be fully 
determined. Hundreds of thousands of men left occupations 
of all sorts and joined the armies. What they might have 
made had they stayed at home was what they lost by going to 
the front. Every loyal state, city, and county, and almost every 
town and village, incurred a war debt. The national govern- 
ment during the war spent for war purposes ^3,660,000,000. 
To this must be added the value of our merchant ships de- 
stroyed by Confederate cruisers ; the annual interest on the 
bonds; and losses in the South. 

The loss in the cities and towns burned or injured by siege 
and tlie other operations of war, and the loss caused by tlie 
ruin of trade and commerce and the destruction of railroads, 

^ This paper fractional currency consisted of small paper bills in denomina- 
tions of 3, 5, 10, 15, 25, and 50 cents. Read tlie acconnt in Rliodes's Hixtm-y nf 
the U. S., Vol. V, pp. 191-196. 2 Iq 1992 changed to one hundred per cent. 



LIFE IN WAR TIMES 383 

farms, plantations, crops, and private property, can not be fully 
estimated, but it was very great. 

The most awful cost was the loss of life. On the Union side 
more than 300,000 men were killed, or died of wounds or of 
disease. On the Confederate side the number was nearly if 
not quite as large, so that some 700,000 men perished in the 
war. Many were young men with every prospect of a long life 
before them, and their early death deprived their country of 
the benefit of tlieir labor. 

Distress in the South. — In the North tlie people suffered 
little if any real hardship. In the South, after the blockade 
became effective, the people suffered privations. Not merely 
luxuries were given up, but the necessaries of life became 
scarce. Thrown on their own resources, the people resorted to 
all manner of makeshifts. To get brine from which salt could 
be obtained by evaporation, the earthen floors of smokehouses, 
saturated by the dripping of bacon, were dug up and washed, 
and barrels in which salt pork had been packed were soaked in 
water. Tea and coffee ceased to be used, and dried blackberry, 
currant, and raspberry leaves were used instead. Rye, wheat, 
chicory, chestnuts roasted and ground, did duty for coffee. 
The spinning wheel came again into use, and homespun clothing, 
dyed with the extract of black-walnut bark, or with wild indigo, 
was generally worn. As articles were scarce, prices rose, and 
then went higher and higher as the Confederate money depre- 
ciated, like the old Continental money in Revolutionary times. 
In 1864 Mrs. Jefferson Davis states that in Richmond a turkey 
cost -1560, a barrel of flour $300, and a pair of shoes 8150. No 
little suffering was caused for want of medicines,^ woolen goods, 
blankets,^ shoes, paper,^ and in some of the cities even bread 

1 When Sherman was in command at Memphis, a funeral procession was 
allowed to pass beyond the Union lines. The coffin, however, was full of medi- 
cines for the Confederate army. 

- Blankets were sometimes made of cow hair, or long moss from the sea- 
board, and even carpets were cut up and sent as blankets to the army. 

3 The newspapers of the time give evidence of the scarcity of paper. Some 
are printed on half sheets, a few on brown paper, and some on note paper. 



384 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



became scarce.^ To get food for the army the Confederate 
Congress (1863) authorized the seizure of supplies for the troops 
and payment at fixed prices which were far below the market 
rates. ^ 

Some men made fortunes by blockade running, smuggling 
from the North, and speculation in stocks. Dwellers on the 
great plantations, remote from the operations of the contending 
armies, suffered not from want of food ; but the great body of 
the people had much to endure. 

1 Riots of women, prompted by the high prices of food, occurred in Atlanta, 
Mobile, Richmond, and other places. 

2 Read " War Diary of a Union Woman in the South," in the Century Maga- 
zine, October, 1889; Rhodes's History of the U. S., Vol. V, pp. 343-384. 

SUMMARY 

1. The operations of the navy comprised (1) the blockade of the coast 
of the Confederate States, (2) the capture of seaports, (3) the pursuit and 
capture of Confederate cruisers, and (4) aiding the army on the western 
rivers. 

2. A notable feature in the naval war was the use of ironclad vessels. 
These put an end to the wooden naval vessels, and revolutienized the navies 
of the world. 

3. The cost of the war in human life, money, and property destroyed 
was immense, and can be stated only approximately. 

4. In the South, as the war progressed, the hardships endured by the 
mass of the people caused much suffering. 




Loading a naval cannon in the Civil War. 

Contt'inporary drawing. 



CHAPTER XXXI 

RECONSTRUCTION 

Three Issues. — After the collapse of the Confederacy, our 
countrymen were called on to meet three issues arising directly 
from the war : — 

1. The first was, What shall be done to destroy the institu- 
tioii of slavery? ^ 

2. The second was, What shall be done with the late Con- 
federate states? 2 

3. The third had to do with the national debt and the 
currency. 

The Thirteenth Amendment. — When the war ended, slaverj' 
nad been abolished in Maryland, Missouri, and West Virginia, 
by gradual or immediate abolition acts, and in Tennessee by a 
special emancipation act. In order that it might be done away 
with everywhere Congress (in January, 18<:>5) sent out to the 

1 A closely related question was, What shall be done for the negroes set free 
by the Emancipation Proclamation ? During the war, as the Union armies 
occupied more and more of Confederate territory, tlie number of freedmen 
within the lines grew to hundreds of thousands. Many were enlisted as soldiers, 
others were settled on abandoned or confiscated lands, and societies were organ- 
ized to aid them. In 1805, however, Congress established the Freednien's 
Bureau to care for them. Tracts of confiscated land were set apart to be granted 
in forty -acre plots, and the bureau was to find the negroes work, establish schools 
for them, and protect them from injustice. 

- When the eleven Southern states passed their ordinances of secession, they 
claimed to be out of the Union. As to this there were in the North three dif- 
ferent views. (1) Lincoln held that no state could secede ; that the people of 
the seceding states were insurgents or persons engaged in rebellion ; that when 
the rebellion was crushed in any state, loyal persons could again elect senators and 
representatives, and thus resume their old relations to the Union. (2) Others 
held that these states had ceased to exist ; that nothing but their territory 
remained, and that Congress could do what it pleased with this territory. 
(8) Between these extremes were most of the Republican leaders, who held 
that these states had lost their rights under the Constitution, and that only Con- 
gress could restore them to the Union. 

38.5 



386 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

states a Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution, de- 
claring slavery abolished throughout the United States. In 
December, 1865, three fourths of the states having ratified, it 
became part of the Constitution, and slavery was no more. 

Reconstruction. — After the death of Lincoln, the work of 
reconstruction was taken up by his successor, Johnson. ^ He 
recognized the governments established by loyal persons in 
Tennessee, Virginia, Arkansas, and Louisiana. For the other 
states he appointed provisional governors and authorized con- 
ventions to be called. These conventions repudiated the 
Confederate debt, repealed the ordinances of secession, and 
ratified the Thirteenth Amendment. 

This done, Johnson considered these states as reconstructed 
and entitled to send senators and representatives to Congress. 
But Congress thought otherwise and would not admit their 
senators and representatives. Johnson then denied the right 
of Congress to legislate for the states not represented in Con- 
gress. He vetoed many bills which chiefly affected the South, 
and in the summer of 1866 made speeches denouncing Con- 
gress for its action. 

The Fourteenth Amendment. — One measure which President 
Johnson would have vetoed if he could, was a Fourteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution which Congress proposed 
in 1866. Ten of the former Confederate states rejected it, 
as did also four of the Union states. Congress, therefore, in 
March, 1867, passed over the veto a Reconstruction Act setting 
forth what the states would have to do to get back into the 
LTnion. One condition was that they must ratify the Four- 
teenth Amendment ; when they had done so, and when the 

1 Andrew Johnson was born in North Carolina in 1808. He never went to 
school, and when ten years old was apprenticed to a tailor. When eighteen, he 
went to Tennessee, where he married and was taught to read and write by his 
wife. He was a man of ability, was three years alderman and three years 
mayor of Greenville, was three times elected a member of the legislature, six 
times a member of Congress, and twice governor of Tennessee. When the 
■war opened, he was a Democratic senator from Tennessee, and stoutly opposed 
secession. In 1802 Lincoln made him military governor of Tennessee. In 1875 
he was again elected United States senator, but died the same year. 



RECONSTRUCTION 387 

amendment had become a part of the Constitution^ they were to 
be readmitted. 

Southern States Readmitted. — Six states — North Carolina, 
South Carolina, Florida, Alabama, Louisiana, and Arkansas — 
submitted, and the amendment having- become a part of the 
Constitution, they were (1868) declared again in the I Jiion. 
Tennessee had been readmitted in 1866. Virginia, Mississippi 
and Texas were not readmitted till 1870, and Georgia not till 
1871. 

The Debt and the Currency. — The financial question to be 
settled included two parts: What shall be done with the bonds 
(p. 381)? and What shall be done with the paper money? As to 
the first, it was decided to pay the bonds as fast as possible,^ and 
by 1873 some -$500,000,000 were paid. As to the second, it was 
at first decided to cancel (instead of reissuing) the greenbacks as 
they came into the treasury in payment of taxes and other debts 
to the government. But after the greenbacks in circulation had 
been thus reduced (from $449,000,000) to $356,000,000, Con- 
gress ordered that their cancellation should stop. 

Johnson Impeached. — The President meantime had been 
impeached. In March, 1867, Congress passed (over Johnson's 
veto) the Tenure of Office Act, depriving him of power to re- 
move certain officials. He might suspend them till the Senate 
examined into the cause of suspension. If it approved, the 
officer was removed. If it disapproved, he was reinstated.^ 

Johnson soon disobeyed the law. In August, 1867, he asked 
Secretary-of-War Stanton to resign, and when Stanton refused, 

1 Some of these bonds (issued after March, 186-3) contained the provision 
that they should be paid "in coin." But others (issued in 1862) merely pro- 
vided that the interest should be paid in coin. Now, greenbaclts w^ere legal 
tender for all debts except duties on imports and interest on the bonds. A 
demand vpas therefore made that the early bonds should be paid in greenbacl<;s; 
also that all government bonds (which had been exempted from taxation) should 
be taxed like other property. This idea was so popular in Oliio tliat it was called 
the "Ohio idea," and its supporters were nicknamed " Greenbackers. " To 
put an end to this question Congress (1869) provided that all bonds should be 
paid in coin. 

2 This Tenure of Office Act was afterward repealed (partly in 1860. and 
partly in 1887). 



388 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



suspended him. The Senate disapproved and reinstated Stan- 
ton. But Johnson then removed him and appointed another 
man in his phice. For this act, and for his sjDeeches against 
Congress, the House impeached the President, and the Senate 
tried him, for " high crimes and misdemeanors." He was not 
found guilty. 1 




Republican cartoon of 1868. 

" Blood will tell I The great race for the presidential sweepstakes, between the Western War 
Horse U. S. Grant and the Manhattan Donkey." 

Grant elected President, 1868. — In the midst of Johnson's 
quarrel with Congress the time came to elect his successor. 
The Democratic party nominated Horatio Seymour. The Re- 
publicans chose Ulysses S. Grant and elected him. 

Grant's first term is memorable because of the adoption of 
the Fifteenth Amendment ; the restoration to the Union of 

^ There have been eight cases of impeachment of officers of the United 
States. The House begins by sending a committee to the Senate to impeach, or 
accuse, the officer in question. The Senate then organizes itself as a court 
with tlie Vice President as tlie presiding officer, and fixes tlie time for trial. 
The House presents articles of impeaclnnent. or specific charges of misconduct, 
and appoints a committee to take charge oi its side of the case. The accused is 
represented by lawyers, witnesses are examined, arguments made, and the 
decision rendered by vote of the senators. When a President is impeached, the 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court presides in place of the Vice President. 



RECONSTRUCTION 389 

the last four of the former Confederate states, Virginia, 
Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas ; the disorder in the South ; 
and the character of our foreign rehations. 

The Fifteenth Amendment. — Encouraged by their success at 
the polls, the Republicans went on with the work of reconstruc- 
tion, and (in Febrnary, 1869) Congress sent out the Fifteenth 
Amendment to the Constitution. 

Jiy the Fourteenth Amendment the states were left (as 
before) to settle for themselves who should and who should 
not vote. But if any state denied or in any way abridged the 
right of any portion of its male citizens over twenty-one years 
old to vote, Congress was to reduce the number of representa- 
tives from that state in Congress in the same proportion. But 
now by the Fifteenth Amendment each state was forbidden to 
deprive any man of the right to vote because of his "race, color, 
or previous condition of servitude." In March, 1870, the 
amendment went into force, having been ratified by a sufficient 
numl)er of states. 

Carpetbag Rule. — President Grant began his administra- 
tion in troubled times. The Reconstruction Act liad secured 
the negro the right to vote. Many Soutliern states were 
thereby given over to negro rule. Seeing this, a swarm of 
Northern politicians called " carpetbaggers " went soutli, made 
themselves .political leaders of the ignorant freed men, and 
plundered and misgoverned the states. In this tliey were aided 
by a few Southerners who supported the negro cause and were 
called "scalawags." But most of the Southern whites were 
determined to stop the misgovernment ; and, banded together 
in secret societies, called by such names as Knights of the White 
Camelia, and the Ku-Klux-Klan, they terrorized the negroes 
and kept them from voting. ^ 

Force Act. — Such intimidation was in violation of the 
Fifteenth Amendment. Congress therefore enacted tlie " Ku- 

1 Read A FooVs Errand, by A. ^Y. Tourgi^e, and lied Bock, by Thomas 
Nelson Page — two interesting novels describing life in the South during this 
period. 



390 



THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 



Klux Act," or Force Act (1871), which prescribed fine and 
imprisonment for any one convicted of hindering or attempt- 
ing to hinder a negro from voting, or his vote when cast from 
being counted. 

Rise of the Liberal Republicans. — The troubles which 
followed the enforcement of this act led many to tliink 
that the government had gone too far, and a more lib- 
eral treatment of the South was demanded. Many com- 
plained that the civil service of the government was used 
to reward party workers, and that fitness for office was not 
duly considered. There was opposition to tlie high tariff. 
Tliese and other causes now split the Republican party in the 
West and led to the formation of the Liberal Republican party. 

Foreign Relations. 
— Our foreign rela- 
tions since the close 
of the Civil War 
present many mat- 
ters of importance. 
In 1867 Alaska ^ was 
purchased from Rus- 
sia for $7,200,000. 
At the opening of 
the war France sent 
troops to Mexico, 
overthrew the gov- 
ernment, and set up 
an empire with Maximilian, Archduke of Austria, as emperor. 
This was a violation of the Monroe Doctrine (p. 282). When 




Cartoon of 1862. 

" Say, Missus [Mexico], me and these other gents 'ave come to 
nurse you a bit." - 



1 Soon after the purchase a few small Alaskan islands were leased to a fur 
company for twenty years, and during that time nearly $7,000,000 was paid into 
the United States treasury as rental and royalty. Besides seals and fish, much 
gold lias been obtained in Alaska. 

2 Wlien France first interfered in Mexican affairs, it was in conjunction 
with Great Britain and Spain, on the pretext of aiding Mexico to provide for her 
debts to these powers. But when France proceeded to overthrow the Mexican 
government. Great Britain and Spain withdrew. 



RECONSTRUCTION 391 

Ihe war was over, therefore, troops were sent to the liio (irande, 
and a demand was made on France to recall her troops. The 
French army was withdrawn, and Maximilian was captured by 
the Mexicans and shot. These things happened while Johnson 
was President. 

Santo Domingo. — In 1869 Grant negotiated a treaty for the 
annexation of the negro republic of Santo Domingo, and 
urged the Senate to ratify it. When the Senate failed to 
do so, he made a second appeal, with a like result. 

Alabama Claims. — In 1871 the treaty of Washington was 
signed, by which several outstanding subjects of dispute with 
Great Britain were submitted to arbitration. (1) Chief of these 
were the Alabama claims for damage to the property of our 
citizens by the Confederate cruisers built or purchased in Great 
Britain.! The five^ arbitrators met at Geneva in 1872 and 
awarded us '$15,500,000 in gokl as indemnity. (2) A dispute 
over the northeastern fisheries^ was referred to a commission 
which met at Halifax and awarded Great Britain 'f5,500,000. 
(3) The same treaty provided that a dispute over a part of the 

1 The cruisers were the Alahnma. Snmter, Shpuandoah, Florida, and others 
(p. 378). We claimed that Great Britain had not done her duty as a neutral ; that 
she ought to have prevented their building, arming, or equipping in her ports and 
sailing to destroy the commerce of a friendly nation, and that, not having done 
so, she was responsible for the damage they did. We claimed damages for (1) 
private losses by destruction of ships and cargoes ; (2) high rates of insurance 
paid by citizens ; (3) cost of pursuing the cruisers ; (4) transfer of American 
merchant ships to the British flag ; (:")) prolongation of the war because of rec- 
ognition of the Confederate States as belligerents, and the resulting cost to us. 
Great Britain denied that 2, 3, 4, and .') were subject to arbitration, and it looked 
for a while as if the arbitration would come to naught. The tribunal decided 
against 2, 4, and 5 on principles of international law, and made no award for 3. 

2 One was appointed by the President, one by Great Britain, one by the King 
of Italy, one by the President of the Swiss Confederation, and one by the Em- 
peror of Brazil. In 1794-11)04 there were tifty-seven cases submitted to arbitra- 
tion, of which twenty were with Great Britain. 

'•^ The question was, whether the privilege granted citizens of the United 
States to catch fish in the harbors, bays, creeks, and shores of the provinces of 
Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island was more 
valuable than the privilege granted British subjects to catch fish in harbors, bays, 
creeks, and off the coast of the United States north of 39^. The commission 
decided that it was. 



392 THE LONG STRUGGLE AGAINST SLAVERY 

northwest boundary should be submitted to the emperor of 
Germany as arbitrator. He decided in favor of our claim, thus 
confirming our possession of the small San Juan group of islands, 
in tlie channel between Vancouver and the mainland. 

Cuba. — In 1868 the people of Cuba rebelled against Spain, 
proclaimed a republic, and began a war which lasted nearly ten 
years. American ships were seized, our citizens arrested ; 
American property in Cuba was destroyed or confiscated ; and 
our ports were used to fit out filibusters to aid the Cubans. 
Because of these things and the sympatliy felt in our country 
for the Cubans, Grant made offers of mediation, which Spain 
declined. As the war continued, the question of giving tlie 
Cubans rights of belligerents, and recognizing their independ- 
ence, was urged on Congress. 

Wliile these issues were undecided, a vessel called the Vir- 
grniiis, flying our flag, was seized by Spain as a filibuster, and 
fifty- three of her passengers and crew were put to death (1873). 
War seemed likely to follow ; but Spain released the shiy and 
survivors, and later paid -^80,000 to the families of the mur- 
dered men. 

SUMMARY 

1. The end of the Civil War brought up several issues for settlement. 

2. Out of the negro problem came the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and 
Fifteentli amendments to the Constitution. 

3. Out of the issue of readmitting the Confederate states into the Union 
grew a serious quarrel with Pi-esident Johnson. 

4. Congress passed tlie Reconstruction Act over Johnson's veto (1867), 
and by 1S68 seven states were back in tlie Union. 

5. Johnson's intemperate speeches and his violation of an act of Con- 
gress led to his impeachment and trial. He was not convicted. 

6. Johnson was succeeded by Grant, in whose administration the re- 
maining Southern states were readmitted to the Union; but the condition 
of the South, under carpetbag government, became worse than ever, and led 
to the passage of the P'orce Act. 

7. Our foreign relations after the end of the war are memorable for the 
purchase of Alaska, the withdrawal of the French from Mexico, the treaty 
with Great Britain for the settlement of several old issues, the attempt of 
Grant to purchase Santo Domingo, and the Virginias affair with Spain. 



CHAPTER XXXII 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1860 TO 1880 

The West. — In 18(30 the great West bore little resemblance 
to its present appearance. The only states wholly or partly 
west of the Mississippi River were Minnesota, Iowa, Missonri, 
Arkansas, Louisiana, Texas, California, and Oregon. Kansas 
territory extended from Missouri to the Rocky Monntains. 
Nebraska teriitory in- 
cluded the region from 
" Kansas to the British pos- 
sessions, and from Minne- 
sota and Iowa to the Rocky 
Monptains. New Mexico 
territory stretched from 
Texas to California, Utah 
territory from the Rocky 
Mountains to California, 
and Washington terri- 
tory from the mountains 
to the Pacific. 

Gold and Silver Min- 
ing. — -One decade, how- 
ever, completely changed the West. In 1858 gold was discov- 
ered on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, near Pikes 
Peak ; gold hunters rushed thither, Denver was founded, and 
in 18(31 Colorado was made a territory. Kansas, reduced to 
its present limits, was admitted as a state the same year, and 
the noi'thern part of Nebraska territory was cut off and called 
Dakota territory (map, p. 52). 

In 1859 silver was discovered on Mount Davidson (then in 
western Utah), and population poured thither. Virginia City 

393 




Scene in a new mining town. 

DeadwooJ, Dakota, in the "TO's. 




115 Longitude lip West 105 from 100 Greenwich 95 



o s s E s-sii qKn s 



'WI?SHS^_!^.!.^f--'^° ' 





394 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1860 TO 1880 395 

sprang into existence, and in 1861 Nevada was made a territory 
and in 186-4, -with enlarged boundaries, was admitted into the 
Union as a state. 

Precious metals were found in 1862 in what was then 
eastern AVasliington; the okl Fort Boise of the Hudson's Bay 
Company became a thriving town, other settlements were 
made, and in 1863 the territory of Idaho was organized. In 
the same year Arizona was cut off from New ^lexico. 

Hardly had this been done when gold was found on the 
Jefferson fork of the Missouri River. Bannack City, Virginia 
City, and Helena were founded, and in 1864 Montana was made 
a territory. 1 

In 1867 Nebraska became a state, and the next year 
Wyoming territory was formed. 

Overland Trails. — ^ Wlien Lincoln was inaugurated in 1861, 
no railroad crossed the plains. The horse, the stagecoach, the 
pack train, tlie pi-airie scliooner,^ were the means of transporta- 
tion, and but few routes of travel were well defined. The 
Great Salt Lake and California trail, starting in Kansas, fol- 
lowed the north branch of the Platte River to the mountains, 
crossed the South Pass, and went on by way of Salt Lake City 
to Sacramento. Over this line, once each week, a four-horse 
Concord coach ^ started from each end of the route. 

From Independence in ^Missouri another line of coaches 
carried the mail over the old Santa Ve trail to New Mexico. 

The great Western mail route began at St. Louis, went 
across Missouri and Arkansas, curved southward to El Paso 
in Texas, and then by way of the Gila River to Los Angeles 
and San Francisco; the distance of 2729 miles was covered in 
twenty-four days.* 

1 For descriptions of ttie wild life in the new Northwest in the pioneer days 
read Langford's Vigilante Days and Ways. 

2 A large wagon with a white canvas top. 

3 A kind of heavy coach, so called becanse first manufactured at Concord, 
New Hampshire. 

* When the war opened and Texas seceded, this route was abandoned, and 
after April, 1861, letters and passengers went from St. Joseph by way of Salt 
Lake City to California. 



396 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 



Pony Express. — This was too slow for business men, and in 
1860 the stage company started the Pony Express to carry 
letters on horseback from St. Joseph to San Francisco. 
Mounted on a swift pony, tlie rider, a brave, cool-headed, picked 
man, would gallop at breakneck speed to the first relay station. 




Overland mail coach starting from San Francisco for the East in 1858. 
Contemi)orary drawing. 

jump on the back of another pony and speed away to the 
second, mount a fresh horse and be off for a third. At 
the third station he would find a fresh rider mounted, who, the 
moment the mail bags had been fastened to his horse, would 
ride off to cover his three stations in as short a time as p'os- 
sible. The riders left each end of the route twice a week 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1860 TO 1880 397 

or oftener. The total distance, about two thousand miles, 
was passed over in ten days.^ 

In the hirge cities of the East free delivery of letters by 
carriers was introduced (1863), the postal money order system 
was adopted (1864), and trials were made with postal cars in 
wliich the mail was sorted while en route. 

The Telegraph. — ■ Meanwhile Congress (in June, 1860) 
incorporated the Pacific Telegraph Company to build a line 
across the continent. By November tlie line reached Fort 
Kearny, where an operator was installed in a little sod hut. 
By October, 1861, tlie two lines, one building eastward from 
California, and the other westward from Omaha, reached Salt 
Lake City. The charge for a ten-word message from New 
York to Salt Lake City was -$7. 50. 

When the telegraph line was finished, the work of the Pon}^ 
Express ended, and all letters went b}^ the overland stage line, 
whose coaclies entered every large mining center, carrying pas- 
sengers, express matter, and the mail.^ 

Overland Freight. — Tlie discovery of gold in western 
Kansas, in 1858, and the founding of Denver, led to a great 
freight business across the plains. Flour, bacon, sugar, coffee, 
dry goods, hardware, furniture, clothing, came in immense 

1 All letters had to be written on the thinnest paper, and no more than twenty 
ponnds' weigiit was allowed in eacli of the two pouches. The trail was infested 
with "road agents" (robbers), and roving bands of Indians were ever ready to 
murder and scalp; but in summer and winter, by day and night, over the plains 
and over the mountains, these brave men made their dangerous rides, carrying 
no arms save a revolver and a knife. P^ach letter had to be inclosed in a ten- 
cent stamped envelope and have on it in addition for each half ounce five one- 
dollar stamj^s of the Pony Express Company. The story of the Pony Express is 
told in Henry Inman's Grent Salt Lake Trail, Chap. viii. 

2 As the government had no post offices in the mining camps, the stage 
company became the postmasters, delivered the letters, and charged twenty-five 
cents for each. Sometimes the owner of a little store in a remote mountain 
camp would act as postmaster, and charge a high price for sending letters to or 
bringing them from the nearest stage station. One such used a barrel for the 
letterbox, and sent the mail once a month. A hole was cut in the head of 
the barrel, and beside it was posted a notice which read : " This is a Post Office. 
Shove a quarter through the hole with your letter. We have no use for stamps 
as I carry the mail." 



398 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

quantities to Omaha, St. Joseph, Atchison, Leavenworth^ 
thence to be hauled to the " diggings." Atchison became a 
trade center. There, in the spring of 1860, might have been 
seen liundreds of wagons, and tons of goods piled on the levee, 
and warehouses full of provisions, boots, shoes, and clothing. 
From it, day after day, went a score of prairie schooners drawn 
by horses, mules, or oxen.^ 

The Railroad. — The idea of a railroad over the plains was, 
as we have seen, an old one ; but at last, in 1862, Congress 
chartered two railroad companies to build across the public 
domain from the Missouri River to California. One, the 
Union Pacific, was to start at Omaha and build westward. 
The other, the Central Pacific, was to start in California and 
build eastward till the two met. Work was begun in Novem- 
ber, 1865, and in May, 1869, the two lines were joined at Prom- 
ontory Point, near Salt Lake City. 

As the railroad progressed, the overland coaches plied 
between the ends of the two sections, tlieir runs growing 
shorter and shorter till, when the road was finished, the over- 
land stagecoach was discontinued. 

The Homestead Law. — When the Union Pacific and Central 
Pacific railroads were chartered, they were given immense land 
grants; 2 but in the same year (1862) the Homestead Law was 

1 The lighter articles went in wagons drawn by four or six horses or mules, 
the heavier in great wagons drawn by six and eight yoke of oxen, which made the 
trip to Denver in five weeks. The cost of provisions brought in this way was very 
great. Thus in 1865, in Helena, Montana, flour sold for $85 a sack of one hun- 
dred pounds. Potatoes cost fifty cents in gold a pound, and coal oil, at Virginia 
City, $10 in gold a gallon. Board and lodgings rose in proportion, and it was 
not uncommon to see posted in the boarding houses such notices as this : 
" Board with bread at meals, $?j'2 ; board without bread, $22." Read Hough's 
The Way to the West, pp. 200-221. 

2 Every other section in a strip of land twenty miles wide along the entire 
length of the railroad. The government had always been liberal in granting 
land to aid in the construction of roads, canals, and railroads, and between 1827 
and 1860 had given away for such purposes 215,000,000 acres. Had these acres 
been in one great tract it would have been seven times as large as Pennsylvania. 
In 1862 Congress also added to its grants for educational purposes (p. 301) by 
giving to each state from 90,000 to 900,000 acres of public land in aid of a college 
for teaching agriculture and the mechanical arts. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1860 TO 1880 ,399 

enacted. Under the provisions of this law a farm of 80 or 160 
acres in the public domain might be secured by any head of a 
family or person twenty-one years old who was a citizen of our 
country or had declared an intention to become such, provided 
he or she would live on the farm and cultivate it for five years. ^ 
Between 1863 and 1870, 103,000 entries for 12,000,000 acres 
were made. This showed that the people desired tlie land, and 
was one reason why no more should be given to corporations. 

Northern Pacific Railroad. — In 1864 Congress had chartered 
a railroad for the new Northwest, and had given the company 
an immense land grant. But building did not begin till 1870. 
All went well till 1873, when a great panic swept over the 
country and the road became bankrupt. It then extended 
from Duluth to Bismarck. Two years later the company was 
reorganized, and the road was finished in 1883. ^ 

Wheat Fields of Dakota. — During the panic certain of the 
directors of the road bought great tracts of land from tlie 
company, paying for them with the railroad bonds. On some 
of these lands in the valley of the Red River of the North an 
attempt was made to raise wheat in 1876. It proved successful, 
and the next year a wave of emigration set strongly toward 
Dakota. In 1860 there were not 5000 people in Dakota; in 
1870 there were but 14,000, mostly miners ; in 1880 there were 
135,000. 

Prairie Homes. — These newcomers — homesteaders, as they 
were often called — broke up the prairie, planted wheat, raised 
sheep and cattle, and lived at first in a dugout, or hole dug in 
the side of a depression in the prairie. This was roofed (about 
the level of the prairie) with thick boards covered with sods. 
After a year or two in such a home the settler would build a 
sod house. The walls, two feet thick, were made of sods cut 
like great bricks from the prairie. The roof Avould be of 
boards covered with shingles or oftener with sods, and the 

1 For conditions on which land could be secured before this, see p. 302. 

2 The history of the railroads across the continent is told in Cy. Warman's 
Story of the Railroad ; for the Northern Pacific, read pp. 179-196. 

McM. BRIEF — 24 



400 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 




Log cabin with sod roof. 

walls inside would sometimes be whitewashed. Near water- 
courses a few settlers found enoug-h trees to make log cabins. 

The Ranches. — Stretching across the country from Montana 
and Dakota to Arizona lay the grass region, the great ranch 
country, where herds of cattle grazed and were driven to the 
railroads to be taken to market. In later years this became 
also the greatest sheep-raising and wool-producing region in 
the Union. 

Buffaloes and Indians. — With the building of the rail- 
roads and. the coming of the settlers the reckless slaughter of 
the buffalo and the crowding of the Indians began. ^ To-day 

1 White men eager for land invaded the Indian reservations ; acts of violence 
were frequent, and shameful frauds were perpetrated by the agents of the 
government. The Indians, in retaliation, killed settlers and ran off horses, 
mules, and cattle. There were uprisings of the Sioux in Minnesota (1802) and 
in Montana (1866) ; but the worst offenders were the Apaches of Arizona, 
and against them General Crook waged war in 1872. Toward the close of 
1872 the Modocs left their reservation in Oregon, took refuge in the Lava Beds in 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1860 TO 1880 401 



the buffalo is as rare an animal in the West as in the East ; and 
after many wars and treaties with the Indians, they now hold 
less than one hundredtli of tlie land west of the iVIississippi. 

Mechanical Progress. — The period 1860 to 1880 was one of 
o-reat mechanical and industrial progress. During tliis time 
dynamite and the barbed- wire fence were introduced ; the com- 
pressed-air rock drill, the typewriter, the VVestinghouse air 
brake, the Janney car coupler, the cable car, the trolley sys- 
tems, the electric light, 
the search light, electric 
motors, the Bell tele- 
phone, the phonograph, 
the gas engine, and a 
host of other inventions 
and mechanical devices 
were invented. To sat- 
isfy the demands of 
trade and commerce, 
great works of engi- 
neering . were under- 
taken, such as twenty 
years before could not 
have been attempted. 
The jetties constructed 

1 T T« Ti 1 • Custer's fight. 

by James B. Eads in 

the South Pass at the mouth of the Mississippi, to force that 
river to keep open its own channel ; the steel-arch railroad 
bridge built by Eads across the Mississippi at St. Louis ; the 
Roebling suspension bridges over the Ohio at Cincinnati and 




northern California, and defied the troops sent to drive them back. General 
Canby and several others -were treacherously murdered at a conference (187;J), 
and a war of several months' duration followed before the Modocs were forced 
to surrender. In 1874 the Cheyennes (she-enz'), enraged at the .slaughter 
of the buffaloes by the whites, made cattle raids, and more fighting ensued. 
An attempt to remove the Sioux to a new reservation led to yet another war 
in 187<), in which Lieutenant-Colonel Custer and his force of 262 men were mas- 
sacred in Montana, Read Longfellow's poem llie Revenge of Rain-in-the-Face, 



402 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 



over the East River at New York ; and the successful haying 
of the Athmtic cable (1866) by Cyrus W. Field, are a few of 
the great mechanical triumphs of this jDeriod. 

Industrial Development. — Industries once carried on in the 
household or in small factories were conducted on a large scale 
by great corporations. The machine for making tin cans made 
possible the canning industry. Tlie self-binding hai-vester and 
reaper made possible the immense grain fields of the West. 
The production and refining of petroleum became an industry of 




steel mill. 

great importance. The great flour mills of Minneapolis, the iron 
and steel mills of Pennsylvania, the packing houses of Chicago 
and Kansas City, and many other enterprises were the direct 
result of the use of machinery. 

Rise of Great Corporations. — Trades and occupations, indus- 
tries of all sorts, began to concentrate and combine, and large 
corporations took the place of individuals and small companies. 
In place of many little railroads there were now trunk lines. ^ 

' Thus (1860) the New York Central (from Albany to Buffalo) and the Hud- 
son Hiver (from New York to Albany) were combined and formed one railroad 
under one management from New York to Buffalo. 



GROWTH OF THE COUNTRY FROM 1S60 TO 1880 403 



•vSi 



(7^ ti 



[^Settled 2re3,n18uO^^ 

— Dot^ in- 




Settled area in i6 



In place of many little telegraph companies, express companies, 
and oil companies there were now a few large ones. 

Immigration. — Tliis industrial development, in spite of 
machinery, could not have been so great were it not for the in- 
crease in population, 
wealth, the facilities 
of transportation, 
and the great num- 
ber of workingmen. 
These were largely 
immigrants, who 
came by hundreds of 
thousands year after 
year. From about 
90,000 in 1862, the 
number who came 
each year rose to more than 450,000 in 1873 ; and then fell to 
less than 150,000 in 1878. The population of the whole coun- 
try in 1880 was 50,000,000, of whom more than 6,500,000 were 
of foreign birth. 

SUMMARY 

1. The discovery of gold and silver near the Rocky Mountains in 1858 
and later brought to that region many thousand miners. 

2. Their presence in that wild region made local government necessary, 
and by 1868 seven new territories were formed (Colorado, Dakota, Nevada, 
Idaho, Arizona, Montana, Wyoming), and one of them (Nevada, 186i) was 
admitted into the Union as a state. 

3. Means of communication with California and the far West were im- 
proved. First came the Pony Express, then the telegraph, and finally the 
railroad. 

4. The construction of the railroad across the middle of the country 
was followed by the building of another near the northern border. 

5. Railroad building, the Homestead Law, and the success of the Dakota 
wheat farms, led to the rajiid development of the new Noj-thwest. 

6. Quite as noticeable is the mechanical and industrial progress of the 
country, the rise of great coi-porations, and the flood of immigrants that 
came to our shores each year. 



CHAPTER XXXIII 

A QUARTER CENTURY OF STRUGGLE OVER INDUSTRIAL 
QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897 

The National Labor Party. — The changed industrial con- 
ditions of tlie period 18(30-80 affected politics, and after 
18('>8 the questions which divided parties became more and 
more industrial and financial. The rise of the national labor 
party and its demands shows tliis very strongly. Ever since 
1829 the workingraan had been in j)olitics in some of the 
states, and had secured many reforms. But no national labor 
congress was held till 1865, after which like congresses were 
held each year till 1870, when a national convention was called 
to form a "National Labor-Reform Party." 

The demands of the party thus formed (18T2) were for 
taxation of government bonds (p. 387); repeal of tlie national 
banking system (p. 382); an eight-hour working day ; exclusion 
of the Cliinese ; ^ and no land grants to corporations (p. 398). 
At every presidential election since this time, nominations have 
been made by one or more labor parties. 

The Prohibition Party. — Another party which first nomi- 
nated presicjential candidates in 1872 was that of the Prohibi- 

1 After the discovery of gold in California, Chinamen, called coolies, came to 
that state in considerable numbers. But they attracted little attention till 1852, 
when the governor complained that they were sent out by Chinese capitalists 
under contract, that the gold they dug was sent to China, and that they worked 
for wages so low that no American could compete with them. Attempts were 
then made to stop their importation, especially by heavy taxes laid on them. 
But the courts declared such taxation illegal, and appeals were then made to 
Congress for relief. No action was taken ; but in 1868 an old treaty with China 
was amended, and to import Cliinamen without their free consent was made a 
penal offense. This did not prevent their coming, so the demand was made for 
their exclusion by act of Congress. 

404 



INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897 405 

tionists. After much agitation of temperance reform, ^ efforts 
were made to proliibit the sale of liquor entirely, and between 
1851 and 1855 eight states adopted prohibitory laws. Then 
the movement subsided for a while, but in 1869 it began again 
and in that year the National Prohibition Reform party was 
founded. In 1872 its platform called for the suppression of 
the sale of intoxicating liquor, and for a long series of other 
reforms. Every four years since that time the Prohibition 
party lias named its candidates. 

Grant Reelected. — In 1872 no great importance was attached 
to either of these parties (the Labor and the Prohibition). The 
contest lay between General Grant, the Republican candidate 
for President, and Horace Greeley ,2 the Liberal Republican 
nominee (p. 390), who was supported also by most of the Dem- 
ocrats. Grant was elected by a large majority. 

The Panic of 1873. — Scarcely had Grant been reinaugurated 
when a serious panic swept over the country. The period since 
the war had been one of great prosperity, wild speculation, 
and extraordinary industrial development. Since 1869 some 
24,000 miles of railroad had been built. But in the midst of all 
this prosperity, the city of Chicago was almost destroyed by fire 
(1871),^ and the next year a large part of the city of Boston 

1 In the early years of the nineteenth century liquor was a part of the 
workinginaii's wages. Every laborer on the farm, in the harvest field, every 
sailor, and men employed in many of the trades, as carpenter's and masons, 
demanded daily grog at the cost of the employer. About 1810 a temperance 
movement put an end to much of this. But intemperance remained the curse 
of the workingman down to the days of Van Buren and Tyler, when a greater 
temperance movement began. 

- Horace Greeley was born in New Hampshire in 1811, and while still a lad 
learned the trade of printer. When he went to New York in 1831, he was so 
poor that he walked the streets in search of work. During the Harrison cam- 
paign in 1840 he edited the Log Cabin, a Whig newspaper, and soon after the 
election founded the Ne^v York Tribune. In 1848 he was elected a member 
of Congress. He was one of the signers of the bond which released Jefferson 
Davis from imj^risonment after the Civil War. Greeley overexerted himself in 
the campaign of 1872, and died a few weeks after the election. 

^ The fire is said to have been started by a cow kicking over a lamp in a 
small barn. Nearly 2200 acres were burned over, some 17,450 buildings con- 
sumed, 200 lives were lost, and 98,000 people made homeless. 



406 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

was burned. This led to a demand for money to rebuild them. 
Many speculative enterprises failed. The railroads that were 
being built ahead of population, in order to open up new lands, 
could not sell their bonds, and when a banker who was backing 
one of the railroads failed, the panic started. Thousands of 
business men failed, and the wages of workingmen were cut 
down. 

The Specie Payment Act. — The cry was then raised for 
more money, and (in 1874) Congress attempted to increase, 
or "inflate," the amount of greenbacks in circulation from 
1356,000,000 to .1400,000,000. Grant vetoed the bill. What 
shall be done with the currency ? then became the question of 
the hour. Paper money was still circulating at less than its 
face value as measured in coin. To make it worth face value, 
Congress (1875) decided to resume specie payment ; that is, the 
fractional currency was to be called in and redeemed in 10, 25, 
and 50 cent silver pieces ; and after January 1, 1879, all green- 
backs were to be redeemed in specie. 

Political Parties in 1876.^ — This policy of resumption of 
specie payment did not please everybody. A Greenback party 
was formed, which called for the repeal of the Specie Payment 
Act and for the issue of more greenbacks. That the presiden- 
tial election would be close was certain, and this certainty did 
much to lead the Democratic and Republican parties to take up 
some of the demands of the Prohibition, Liberal Republican, 
and Labor parties. Thus both the Democratic and Republican 
parties called for no more land grants to corporations, and for 
the exclusion of the Chinese. 

1 The close of the first century of our national independence was the occa- 
sion of a great exposition in Philadelphia — the first of many that have been 
held in our country on centennial anniversaries of great events in our history. 
The Philadelphia exposition was first planned as a mammoth fair for the display 
of the industries and arts of the United States ; but Congress having approved 
the idea, all foreign nations were invited to take part, and thirty-three did so. 
The main building covered some twenty acres and was devoted to the display of 
manufactures. The exposition occupied also four other large buildings devoted 
to machinery, agriculture, etc., of which Horticultural Hall and Memorial Hall 
are still standing. 



INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897 407 




Memorial Hall, Philadelphia. 

The Election of 1876. — The Republican candidate for 
President was Hutherford B. Hayes ; ^ the Democratic candi- 
date was Samuel J. Tilden. The admission of Colorado in 
August, 187<3, made thirty-eiglit states, casting 3()'J electoral 
votes. A candidate to be elected therefore needed at least 185 
electoral votes. So close was tlie contest that the election of 
Playes was claimed by exactly 185 votes. This number in- 
cluded the votes of South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, and 
Oregon, in each of which a dispute was raging as to whether 
Republican or Democratic electors were chosen. Both sets 
claimed to have been elected, and both met and voted. 

Electoral Commission. — The electoral votes of the states are 
counted in the presence of the House and Senate. The ques- 
tion then became. Which of these duplicate sets shall Congress 
count ? To determine the question an electoral commission of 
fifteen members was created. ^ It decided tliat the votes of the 

1 Rutherford B. Hayes was born in Ohio in 1822, and after graduating from 
Kenyon College and the Harvard Law School settled at Fremont, Ohio, but soon 
moved to Cincinnati. At the opening of the war he joined the Union army and 
by 18G5 had risen to the rank of brevet major general. While still in the army, 
he was elected to Congress, served two terms, and was then twice elected gov- 
ernor of Ohio. In 1875 he was elected for a third term. He died in ISOO. 

- The commission consisted of five senators, five representatives, and five 
justices of the Supreme Court ; eight were Republicans, and seven Democrats. 



408 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

Republican electors in the four states should be counted, and 
Hayes was therefore declared elected. ^ 

End of Carpetbag Governments. — The inauguration of Hayes 
was followed by the recall of United States troops from the 
South, and the downfall of carpetbag governments in South 
Carolina and Louisiana. During the first half of Hayes's term 
the Democrats had control of the House of Representatives, 
and during the second half, of the Senate as well. As a result, 
proposed partisan measures either failed to pass Congress, or 
were vetoed by the President. 

The Year 1877 was one of great business depression. A 
strike on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad in the summer of 
1877 spread to other railroads and became almost an industrial 
insurrection. Traffic was stopped, millions of dollars' worth of 
freight cars, machine sliops, and other property was destroyed, 
and in the battles fought around Pittsburg many lives were 
lost.^ Failures were numerous ; in 1878 more business men 
faileil than in the panic year 1873. 

Silver Coinage. — For much of this business depression the 
financial policy of tlie government was blamed, and when Con- 
gress assembled in 1877, this policy was at once attacked. An 
attempt to repeal the act for resuming specie payment (p. 408) 
was made, but failed.^ Another measure, however, concerning 
silver coinage, was more successful. 

Congress had dropped (1873) the silver dollar from the list 

1 By 185 electoral votes against 184 for Tilden. The popular vote at the 
election of 1876 was (according to the Republican claim): for Hayes, 4,033,768; 
for Tilden, 4,285,992 ; for Peter Cooper (Greenback-Labor or " Independent "), 
81,737; for Green Clay Smith (Prohibition), 9522. 

2 The strikers' grievances were reduction of wages, irregular employment, 
irregular payment of wages, and forced patronage of company hotels. There 
were riots at Baltimore, Chicago, Reading, and other places besides Pittsburg ; 
state militia was called out to quell the disorder ; and at the request of the state 
governors. United States troops were sent to Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 
West Virginia. 

3 Specie payment was accordingly begun on January 1, 1879, and then for 
the first time since greenbacks were made legal tender they were accepted 
everywhere at par with coin. By the provisions of other laws, the amount of 
greenbacks kept in circulation was fixed at )$ 346,681,000. 



INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897 409 

of coins to be made at the mint.^ Soon afterward the silver 
mines of Nevada began to yield astonishingly, and the price of 
silver fell. This led to a demand (by inflationists and silver- 
producers) that the silver dollar should again be coined ; and 
in 1878 Congress passed (over Hayes's veto) the Bland-Allison 
Act, which required the Secretary of the Treasury to buy not 
less than $2,000,000 nor more than If 4,000,000 worth of silver 
bullion each month and coin it into dollars.^ 

** The Chinese must go." — Another act vetoed by Hayes was 
intended to stop the coming of Chinese to our country. In 1877 
an anti-Chinese movement was begun in San Francisco by the 
workingmen led by Dennis Kearney. Open-air meetings were 
held, and the demand for Chinese exclusion was urged so vig- 
orously that Congress (1879) passed an act restricting Chinese 
immigration. Hayes vetoed this as violating our treaty with 
China, but (1880) negotiated a new treaty which provided that 
Congress might regulate the immigration of Chinese laborers. 

The Election of i88o ; Death of Garfield. —In 1880 there 
were again several parties, but the contest was between the 
Republicans with James A. Gartield^ and Chester A. Arthur 
as candidates for President and Vice President, and the Demo- 

1 The price of silver in 1872 was such that the 412^ grains in the dollar 
were worth $ 1.02 in gold money. The silver dollar wa.s worth more as silver 
bullion tiian as money, and was therefore little used as money. This dropping 
of the silver dollar from the list of coins, or ceasing to coin it, was called the 
"demonetization of silver." 

'•^ To carry any number of these " cart-wheel dollars" in the pocket would 
have been inconvenient, because of their size and weight. Provision was there- 
fore made that the dollars might be deposited in the United States treasury 
and paper "silver certificates" issued against them. Get specimens of different 
kinds of paper money, read the words printed on a silver certificate, and com- 
pare with the wording on a greenback (United States note) and on a national 
bank note. 

2 James A. Garfield was born in Ohio in 1831. While still a lad, he longed 
to be a sailor, and failing in this, he became a canal boatman. After a little 
experience as such he went back to school, supporting himself by working as a 
carpenter and teaching .school. In 1854 he entered the junior class of AVilliams 
College, graduated in 1856, became a teacher in Hiram Institute, was elected 
to the Ohio senate in 1859, and joined the Union army in 1801. In 1802 he 
was elected to Congress, took his seat in December, 1803, and continued to be a 
member of the House of Representatives till 1881. 



410 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

crats with Winfield S. Hancock and William H. English as 
leaders. 

Gartield and Arthur were elected, and on March 4, 1881, 
were duly inaugurated. Four months later, as the President 
stood in a railway station in Washington, a disappointed office 
seeker shot him in the back. After his death (September 19, 
1881) Chester A. Arthur became President. ^ 

Important Laws, 1881-85. — All parties had called for anti- 
Chinese legislation. The long-desired act was accordingl}^ 
passed by Congress, excluding the Chinese from our country 
for a period of twenty years. Arthur vetoed it as contrary to 
our treaty with China. An act "suspending" the immigration 
of Chinese laborers for ten years was then passed and became 
law; similar acts have been passed from time to time since 
then. 

The Republicans (and Prohibitionists) had demanded the 
suppression of polygamy in Utah and the neighboring terri- 
tories. Another law (the Edmunds Act, 1882) was therefore 
enacted for this end.^ 

The murder of Garfield aroused a general demand for 
civil service reform. The Pendleton Act (1883) was therefore 
enacted to secure appointment to othce on the ground of fitness, 
not party service.^ 

1 Chester Alan Arthur was born in Vermont in 1830, graduated from Union 
College, became (1853) a lawyer in New York city, and was (1871-78) cus- 
toms collector of the port of New York. In 1880 he attended the national 
Republican convention as a delegate from New York, and was one of the 302 
members of that convention who voted to the last for the renomination of Grant. 
After Grant was defeated and Garfield nominated, Arthur was named for the 
vice presidency, in order to appease the " Stalwarts," as the friends of Grant 
were called. 

'^ When this failed to accomplish its purpose, Congress (1887) enacted an- 
other law providing heavy penalties for polygamy. The Mormon Church then 
declared against the practice. 

3 The murder of Garfield led also to a new presidential succession law. The 
old law provided that if both the President and the Vice President should die, 
the office should be filled temporarily by the president pro tern, of the Senate, or 
if there were none, by the speaker of the House of Representatives. But one 
Congress expired March 4, 1881, and the next one did not meet and elect its pre- 
siding officers till December ; so if Arthur had died before then, there would 



INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897 



411 




The New Navy. — After the close of the Civil War our navy 
was suffered to fall into neglect and decay. The thirty-seven 
cruisers, all but four of 
which were of wood; the 
fourteen single-turreted 
monitors built during the 
war ; the muzzle-loading 
guns, belonged to a past 
age. By 1881 this was 
fully realized and the 
foundation of a new and 
splendid navy was begun 
by the construction of 
three unarmored cruisers The cnuser Boston. 

— the Atlanta, Boston, and Chicago. Once started, the new 
navy grew rapidly, and in the course of twelve years forty-seven 
vessels were afloat or on the stocks.^ 

New Reforms Demanded. — Meantime the wonderful de- 
velopment of our country caused a demand for further re- 
forms. The chief employers of labor were corporations and 
capitalists, many of whom abused the power their wealth gave 
them. They were accused of importing laborers under contract 
and thereby keeping wages down, of getting special privileges 
from legislatures, and of combining to fix prices to suit them- 
selves. In the campaign of 1884, therefore, these issues 

have been no one to act as President. A new law passed in 188G provides tliat if 
both the presidency and the vice presidency become vacant, the presidency sliall 
pass to the Secretary of State, or, if there be none, to the Secretary of the Trea- 
sury, or, if necessary, to the Secretary of War, Attorney General, Postmaster 
General, Secretary of the Navy, or Secretary of the Interior. 

1 In 1881, Lieutenant A. W. Greely was sent to plant a station in the Arctic 
regions. Supplies sent in 1882 and 1883 failed to reach him, and alarm was felt 
for the safety of his party. In 1884 a rescue expedition was sent out under charge 
of Commander W. S. Schley. Three vessels were made ready by the Navy De- 
partment and a fourth was contributed by Great Britain. After a long search 
Greely and six companions wei-e found on the point of starvation and five 
were brought safely home. During their stay in the Arctic, they had reached 
a point within 430 miles of the north pole, the farthest north any white man 
had then gone. 



412 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 



came to the front, and demands were made for (1) legislation 
against the importation of contract labor, (2) regulation of in- 
terstate commerce, especially 
as carried on by railways, 

(3) government ownership 
of telegraphs and railways, 

(4) reduction of the hours of 
labor, (5) bureaus to collect 
and spread information as to 
labor. 

The Election of 1884. — 
The Republicans nominated 
James G. Blaine for Presi- 
dent ; the Democrats, Grover 
Cleveland. 1 The nomination 
of Blaine gave offense to 
many Republicans ; they took 
the name of Independents 
and supported Cleveland, 
who was elected. 
Important Laws, 1885-89.^ — As the two great parties. 
Democratic and Republican, had each favored the passage of 

1 Grover Cleveland was born in New Jersey in 1887. In 1841 his father, a 
Presbyterian minister, removed to Onondaga County, New York, where Grover 
attended school and served as clerk in the village store. Later he tauglit for a 
year in the Institute for the Blind in New York city ; but soon began the study 
of law, and settled in Buffalo. He was assistant district attorney of Erie County, 
sheriff and mayor of Buffalo, and in 1882, as the Democratic candidate for gov- 
ernor of New York, carried the state by 192,000 plurality. Both when mayor 
and when governor he was noted for his free use of the veto power. 

- In 1885 the Bartholdi statue of Liberty Enlightening the World was 
formally received at New York. It was a gift from the people of France to the 
people of America. A hundred thousand Frenchmen contributed the money for 
the statue, and the pedestal was built with money raised in the United States. 
An island in New York harbor was chosen for the site, and there the statue was 
unveiled in October, 1880. The top of Liberty's torch is 305 feet above low water. 

In September, 188(5, a severe earthquake occurred near Charleston, South 
Carolina, the vibrations of which were felt as far away as Cape Cod and Mil- 
waukee. In Charleston most of the houses were made unfit for habitation, 
many persons were killed, and some f 8,000,000 worth of property was destroyed. 




Grover Cleveland. 



INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897 



413 



certain laws demanded by the labor parties, these reforms were 
now obtained. 

1. An Anti-Contract-Labor Law (1885) foi'bade any person, 
company, or corporation to bring aliens into the United States 
under contract to perform labor or service. 

2. An Interstate Commerce Act (1887) provided for a com- 
mission whose duty it is to see that all charges for the carriage 
of passengers or freight are reasonable and just, and that no 
unfair special rates are made 
for favored shippers. 

3. A Bureau of Labor 
was established and put in 
charge of a commissioner 
whose duty it is to " diffuse 
among the people of the 
LInited States useful infor- 
mation on subjects connected 
with labor." Such bureaus 
or departments already ex- 
isted in many of the states. 

The Surplus. — Tliese 
old issues disposed of, the 
continued growth and pros- 
perity of our country 
brought up new ones. For 
some time past the revenue 




The statue of Liberty. 



of the government had so exceeded its expenses that on De- 
cember 1, 1887, there was a surplus of $50,000,000 in the 
treasury. Six months later this had risen to -$103,000,000. 

Three plans were suggested for disposing of the surplus. 
Some thought it should be distributed among the states as in 
1837. Some were for buying government bonds and so reduc- 
ing the national debt. Others urged a reduction of the annual 
revenue by cutting down the tariff rates. The President in his 
message in 1887 asked for such a reduction, and in 1888 the 
House passed a new tariff bill which the Senate rejected. 



414 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

The Campaign of 1888. — In the eampaioii of 1888, therefore, 
the tariff issue came to the front. The Democrats renominated 
Grover Cleveland for President, and called for a tariff for 
revenue only, and for no more revenue than was needed to pay 
the cost of economical government. The Republicans nomi- 
nated Benjamin Harrison^ on a platform favoring a protective 
tariff, and elected him. 

New States. — Both the great parties had called for the 
admission of new states. Just before the end of Cleveland's 
term, therefore, an enabling act was passed for North and South 
Dakota, Washington, and Montana, which were accordingly 
admitted to the Union a few months later (1889). Idalio and 
Wj^oming were admitted the following year (1890), and Utah 
in 1896. 

New Laws of 1890. — The administration of affairs having 
again passed to the llepublican party, it enacted the McKinley 
Tariff Law, which slightly raised the average rate of duties ; 
the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, forbidding combinations to re- 
strain trade; and a new financial measure which also bore the 
name of Senator Sherman. The law (p. 409) requiring the 
purchase and coinage of at least -12,000,000 worth of silver 
bullion each month did not satisfy the silver men. They 
wanted a free-coinage law, giving any man the privilege of 
having liis silver coined into dollars (p. 224). As they had a 
majority of the Senate, they passed a free-coinage bill, but the 
House rejected it. A conference followed, and tlie so-called 
Sherman Act was passed, increasing the amount of silver to be 
bought each month by the government. ^ 

1 Benjamin Harrison, the grandson of President William Henry Harrison, 
was born at North Bend, Ohio, in 1833. He was educated at Miami Uni- 
versity, studied law, settled at Indianapolis, and when the war opened, was re- 
porter to the sujareme court of Indiana. Joining the volunteers as a lieutenant, 
he was brevetted brigadier general before the war ended. In 1881 he became 
a senator from Indiana. He died in 1901. 

- This required the Secretary of the Treasury to buy each month 4,500,000 
ounces of silver, pay for it with treasury notes, and redeem the notes on demand 
in coin. After July 1, 1801, the silver so purchased need not be coined, but 
might be stored and silver certificates issued against it. 



INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897 415 

The Congressional Election of 1890. — The effect of the in- 
creased tariff rates, tlie Sherman Act, and large expenditures 
by Congress was at once apparent, and in the congressional 
election of 1890 the Republicans were beaten. The Democratic 
minority in the House of Representatives was turned into a 
great majority, and in both House and Senate appeared mem- 
bers of a new party called the Farmers' Alliance.^ 

Presidential Campaign of 1892. — The success of the Alliance 
men in the election of 1890, and the conviction that neither the 
Democrats nor the Republicans would further all their de- 
mands, led to a meeting of Alliance and Labor leaders in May, 
1891, and the formation of " the People's Party of the United 
States of America." In 1892 this People's Party, or the 
Populists, as they were called, nominated James B. Weaver for 
President, cast a million votes, and secured tlie election of 
four senators and eleven representatives in Congress.' The 
Republicans renominated Harrison for President. But the 
Democrats secured majorities in the House and the Senate, and 
elected Cleveland. ^ 

The Panic of 1893. — When Cleveland's second inauguration 
took place, March 4, 1893, our country had already entered a 
period of panic and business depression. Trade had fallen off. 
INloney was liard to borrow. Foreigners who held our stocks 
and bonds sought to sell them, and a great amount of gold was 
drawn to Europe. So bad did business conditions become that 
the President called Congress to meet in special session in 
August to remedy matters. 

The silver dollars coined by the government were issued 
and accepted by the government at their face value, and circu- 

1 Soon after the war the farmers in the great agricultural states had formed 
associations under such names as the Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, Patrons of 
Industry. Agricultural Wheel, Farmers' Alliance, and others. About 1886 they 
began to unite, and formed the National Agricultural Wheel and the Farmers' 
Alliance and Cooperative Union. In 1889 these and others were united in a 
convention at St. Louis into the Farmers' Alliance and Industrial Union. 

^ The electoral vote was : for Cleveland, 277 ; Harrison, 145 ; Weaver. 22. 
The popular vote was : Democratic, 5,556,543 ; Republican, 5,175,582 ; Popu- 
list, 1,040,886 ; Prohibition, 255,841 ; Socialist Labor, 21,532. 

McM. BRIEF 25 



416 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

lated on a par with gold, although the price of silver bullion 
had fallen so low that the metal in a silver dollar was worth 
less than seventy cents. Many people believed the business 
panic was due to fears that the government could not much 
longer keep the increasing volume of silver currency at par 
with gold. Therefore Congress repealed part of the Sherman 
Act of 1890, so as to stop the purchase of more silver. 

The Wilson Tariff. — The business revival which the ma- 
jority of Congress now expected, did not come. Failures con- 
tinued ; mills remained closed, gold continued to leave the 
country, and government receipts were $34,000,000 less than 
expenditures when the year ended. By the close of the autumn 
of 1893, hundreds of thousands of people were out of employ- 
ment and many in want. In this condition of affairs Congress 
met in regular session (December, 1893). The Democrats were 
in control of both branches, and were pledged to revise the 
tariff. A bill was therefore passed, cutting down some of tlie 
tariff rates (the Wilson Act).^ 

Nobody expected that the revised tariff would yield enough 
money to meet the expenses of the government. One section 
of the law therefore provided that all yearly incomes above 
$4000 should be taxed two per cent. Though Congress had 
levied an income tax thirty years before, its right to do so was 
now denied by many, and the Supreme Court decided (1895) 
that the income tax was unconstitutional.^ 

Australian Ballot. — One great reform which must not go 
unnoticed was the introduction of the Australian or secret bal- 

1 Cleveland objected to certain features of the bill, and refused to sign it ; 
but he did not veto it. By the Constitution, if the President neither signs a bill 
nor returns it with his veto within ten days (Sunday excepted) after he 
receives it, the bill becomes a law without his signature, provided Congress 
has not meanwhile adjourned. If Congress adjourns before the ten-day limit ex- 
pires and the President does not sign, then the bill does not become a law, but 
is "pocket vetoed." 

2 Because Congress had made the tax uniform — the same on incomes of 
the same amount everywhere — instead of fixing the total amount to be raised 
and dividing it among the states according to population, as required by the 
Constitution in the case of direct taxes. 



INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897 417 

lot. The purpose of this system of voting, first used in Aus- 
ti'iilia, is to enable the voter to prepare his ballot in a booth 
by himself and deposit it without any one knowing for whom he 
votes. The system was first used in our country in Massachu- 
setts and in Louisville, Kentucky, in 1888. So successful was it 
that ten states adopted it the next year, and by 1894 it was in 
use in all but seven of the forty-four states. 

Negroes Disfranchised. — Six of the seven were Southern 
states where negroes were numerous. After the fall of the 
carpetbag governments illegal means were often used to keep 
negroes from the polls and prevent " negro domination " in 
these states. Later legal methods were tried instead: the pa}- 
ment of taxes, and sometimes such an educational qualifica- 
tion as the ability to read, were required of voters; but the 
laws were so framed as to exclude many negroes and few 
whites. Mississippi was the first state to amend her con- 
stitution for this purpose (1890), and nearly all the Southern 
states have followed her example.^ 

The Free Coinage Issue. — Now that the treasury had 
ceased to buy silver, the demand for the free coinage of silver 
was renewed. The Republicans in their national platform in 
1896 declared against it, whereupon thirty-four delegates from 
the silver states (Idaho, Montana, South Dakota, Colorado, 
Utah, and Nevada) left the convention. The Democratic 
party declared for free coinage,^ but many Democrats ("gold 
Democrats") thereupon formed a new party, called the 
National Democratic, and nominated candidates on a gold- 
standard platform. Both the great parties w^ere thus split on 
the issue of free coinage of silver. 

1 The franchise has been slightly narrowed in some Northern states by edu- 
cational qualifications ; but, on the other hand, in four states it has been 
extended to women on the same terms as men — in Wyoming (since 1869), 
Colorado (since 1893), Utah (since 1895), and Idaho (since 1896). In nearly 
half the states women can now vote in school elections. In Kansas they vote 
also in municipal elections. 

2 They demanded "the free and unlimited coinage of both silver and gold 
at the present legal ratio of 16 to 1 " ; that is, that out of one pound of gold 
should be coined as many dollars as out of sixteen pounds of silver. 



418 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

The Campaign of 1896. — The Republican party nominated 
William McKinley^ for President. The Democrats named 
William J. Bryan, and he was indorsed by the People's party 
and the National Silver party. ^ The campaign was most ex- 
citing. The country was flooded with books, pamphlets, hand- 
bills, setting forth both sides of the silver issue ; Bryan and 
Mclvinley addressed immense crowds, and on election day 
13,900,000 votes were cast. McKinley was elected. 

The Dingley Tariff. — The excitement over silver was such 
that in the campaign the tariff question was little considered. 
But the Republicans were pledged to a revision of the tariff, 
and accordingly (July, 1897) the Dingley Bill passed Congress 
and was approved by the President. Thus in the course of 
seven years the change of administration from one party to 
the other had led to the passage of three tariff acts — the 
McKinley (1^90), the Wilson (1894), and the Dingley (1897). 

Foreign Complications. — It is now time to review our for- 
eign relatiuns during this period. Twice since 1890 they had 
brought us apparently to the verge of war. 

The Chilean Incident. — In 1891, while the United States 
ship Baltimore was in the port of Valparaiso, Chile, some sailors 
went on shore, were attacked on the streets, and one was killed 
and several wounded. Chile offered no apology and no repara- 
tion to the injured, but instead sent an offensive note about the 
matter. Harrison, in a message to Congress (1892), plainly 
suggested war. But the offensive note was withdrawn, a 
proper apology was made, and the incident ended. 

1 William McKinley was born in Ohio in 1843, attended Allegheny College 
for a short time, then taught a district school, and was a clerk in a country post 
office. When the Civil War opened, he joined the army as a private in a regi- 
ment in which Hayes was afterwards colonel, served through the war, and was 
brevetted major for gallantry at Cedar Oeek and Fishers Hill. The war over, 
he became a lawyer, entered politics in Ohio, and was elected a member of seven 
Congresses. From 1892 to 1896 he was governor of Ohio. 

- The Gold Democrats nominated .John M. Palmer ; and the Prohibitionists, 
the National party, and tlie Socialist Labor party also named candidates. But 
none of these parties cast so many as 150,000 popular votes or secured any 
electoral votes. 



INDUSTRIAL QUESTIONS, 1872 TO 1897 



419 



The Seal Fisheries. — Great Britain and our country were 
long at variance over the question of ownership of seals in Bering 
Sea. Our purpose was to protect them from extermination by 
certain restrictions on seal fishing. To settle our rights in 
the matter, a court of arbitration was appointed and met in 
Paris in 1803. The decision was against us, but steps were 
tulceii to [u-otect the seals from externihiation.i 




Hawaiian boats with outriggers. 

Hawaii. — Just before Harrison retired from office a revolu- 
tion in the Hawaiian Islands drove the queen from the throne. 
A provisional government was then established, commissioners 
were dispatched to Washington, and a treat}" for the annexa- 

1 We contended that we had jurisdiction in Bering Sea ; that the seals rear- 
ing their young on our islands in that sea were our property ; that even though 
they temporarily went far out into the Pacific Ocean tliey were under our 
protection. Our revenue cutters had therefore seized Canadian vessels taking 
I seals in the open sea. 



420 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

tion of Hawaii to the United States was drawn up and sent to 
the Senate. President Cleveland recalled the treaty and sought 
to liave the queen restored. But the Hawaiians in control 
resisted and in 1894 established a republic. 

Venezuela. — For many years there was a dispute over the 
boundary line between British Guiana and Venezuela, and in 1895 
seemed likely to involve Venezuela in a war with Great Britain. 
Our government had tried to bring about a settlement by 
arbitration. Great Britain refused to arbitrate, and denied our 
right to interfere. President Cleveland insisted that under the 
Monroe Doctrine we had a right, and in December, 1895, asked 
Congress to authorize a commission to investigate the claims of 
Great Britain. Tliis was done, and great excitement at once 
arose at home and in Great Britain. But Great Britain and 
Venezuela soon submitted the question to arbitration. 

SUMMARY 

1. The wonderful industrial growth of our country between 1860 and 
1880 brought up for settlement grave industrial and financial questions. 

2. The failure of the two great parties to take up these questions at 
once, caused the formation of many new parties, such as the National Labor, 
the Prohibition, the Liberal Republican, and the People's party. 

3. Some of their demands were enacted into laws, as the silver coinage 
act, the exclusion of the Chinese, the anti-contract-labor and interstate 
commerce acts, the establishment of a national labor bureau, and the anti- 
trust act. 

4. In 1890-97 the tariff was three times revised by the McKinley, Wil- 
son, and Dingley acts. 

5. In the political world the most notable events were the contested 
election of 1876-77; the recall of United States troops from the South, and 
the fall of carpetbag governments ; the assassination of (iartleld ; and the 
two defeats of the national Republican ticket (1884 and 1892). 

6. In the financial world the chief events were the panics of 1873 and 
1893, the resumption of specie payment (1879), and the free-silver issue. 

7. In the world at large we had trouble with Chile, Hawaii, and Great 
Britain. 



CHAPTER XXXV 



THE WAR WITH SPAIN, AND LATER EVENTS 

The Cuban Rebellion. ^ In February, 1895, the Cubans, for 
the sixth time in tifty years, rose in rebellion against Spain, 
and attempted to form a republic. These proceedings con- 
cerned us for several reasons. American trade with Cuba was 
interrupted ; Ameri- 



Key Weat*-- V!?^ <© * ^ \. ^ 

Havana^..--.. B ^-^^ ^ 



SCALE OF MILES 



ISLE OF 

Pines 




j^ ■'^^'^}-^ 



PORtO g^-.ct'"" 



Cuba and Porto Rico. 



can money invested 
in Cuban mines, rail- 
roads, and planta- 
tions might be lost ; 
our ports were used 
by the Cubans in fit- 
ting out military ex- 
peditions which our 
government was forced to stop at great expense ; the cruelty 
with which the war was waged aroused indignation. During 
the summer of 1897 the suffering of Cuban non-combatants was 
so great that our people began to send them food and medical aid. 
Destruction of the Maine. — While our people were engaged 
in this humane work, our battleship Maine^ riding at anchor in the 
harbor of Havana, was blown up (February 15, 1898) and two 
hundred and sixty of her sailors killed. War was now inevi- 
table, and on April 19 Congress adopted a resolution demand- 
ing that Spain should withdraw from Cuba, and authorizing the 
President to compel her to leave if necessary. ^ Spain at once 
severed diplomatic relations, and (April 21, 1898) war began. 

_ 1 At the same time it was resolved, "That the United States hereby disclaims 
any disposition or intention to exercise sovereignty, jurisdiction, or control over 
said island, except for the pacification thereof, and asserts its determination, 
when that is accomplished, to leave the government and control of the island to 
its people." 

421 



422 



ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 




Manila Btlri^'\.f\ 

MINDORO/ j-S-) O 

J i'sj •' ^ 

*" ^|■' - ^ sAwiAR 

^ n" PANAY) , I J> W 

WAN ".^Wy^^ ■ 

NEGROSi 
S U L U 

SEA 

O 
'v "c» 'SULU 

BRITISH </x . 
LoRTHBORN^' ^ TS LANDS 

^^fJi-' CELEBES SEA 




The Battle of Manila Bay. — A fleet which had assembled 
at Key West sailed at once to blockade Havana and other ports 
on the coast of Cuba. Another under Commodore Dewey 
sailed from Hongkong to attack the Spanish fleet in the Phil- 
ippine Islands. Dewey found it in Manila Bay, where on 
the morning of May 1, 1898, he attacked and destroyed it with- 
out losing a man or a ship. The city of Manila was tlien 

blockaded, and General jNIerritt 
W'ith twenty thousand men was 
sent across the Pacific to take pos- 
session of the Philippines. 

Blockade of Cervera's Fleet. — 
Meantime a second Spanish fleet, 
under Admiral Cervera (thair- 
va'ra ), sailed from the Cape Verde 
Islands. Acting Rear - Admiral 
Sampson, with ships which had been 
blockading Havana, and Commo- 
dore Schley, with a "flying squad- 
ron," went in search of Cervera, 
who, after a long hunt, was found 
in the harbor of Santiago on the 
south coast of Cuba, and at once 

The Philippines. blockaded.l 

The Merrimac. — The entrance to Santiago harbor is long, 
narrow, and defended by strong forts. In an attempt to make 
the blockade more certain, Lieutenant Hobson and a volunteer 
crew of seven men took the collier (coal ship) Merrimac well 
into the harbor entrance and sank her in the channel (June 3).^ 

1 When the Maine was destroyed, the battleship Oregon, tlien on the Pacific 
coast, was ordered to the Atlantic seaboard. Making her way southward through 
the Pacific, she passed the Strait of Magellan, steamed up the east coast of 
South America, and after the swiftest long voyage ever made by a battleship, 
took her place in the blockading fleet. 

- 'I'he storm of shot and shell from the forts carried away some of the ]]/erri- 
»M«c's steering gear, so that Hobson was unable to sink the vessel at tlie spot 
intended. The channel was still navigable. Head tlie article by Lieutenant 
Hobson in the Century Magazine for December, 1898 to March, 1899. 



BRITISH?/- 




THE WAR WITH SPAIN 



423 




A field gun near Santiago. 



The little band were made prisoners of war and in time were 
exchanged. 

Battles near Santiago. — As the fleet of Cervera could not be 
attacked by water, it was decided to capture Santiago and so 
force him to run out. (Gen- 
eral Shaffer with an army 
was therefore sent to Cuba, 
and landed a few miles from 
the city (June 22, 23), and 
at once pushed forward. 
On July 1 the Spanish posi- 
tions on two hills, El Caney 
(el ca-na') and San Juan 
(sahn hoo-ahn'), were car- 
ried by storm. 1 

The capture of Santiago 
was now so certain that, on July 3, Cervera's fleet dashed from 
the harbor and attempted to break through the blockading 
fleet. A running sea fight followed, and in a few hours all six 
of the Spanish vessels were shattered wrecks on the coast of 
Cuba. Not one of our ships was seriously damaged. 

Two weeks later General Toral (t5-rahl') surrendered the 
city of Santiago, the eastern end of Cuba, and a large army. 

Porto Rico. — General Miles now set off with an army to 
capture Porto Rico. He landed on the south coast (August 1) 
near Ponce (pon'tha), and was pushing across the island when 
hostilities came to an end. 

Peace. — Meanwhile, the French minister in Washington 
asked, on behalf of Spain, on what terms peace would be made. 
President McKinley stated them, and on August 12 an agree- 
ment, or protocol, was signed. This provided (1) that hostili- 
ties should cease at once, (2) that Spain should withdraw 
from Cuba and cede Porto Rico and an island in the Ladrones 



1 Among those who distinguished themselves in this campaign were General 
Joseph Wheeler, an ex-Confederate cavalry leader ; and Lieutenant-Colonel 
Theodore Koosevelt, with his regiment of volunteers called '• Rough Riders." 



424 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

to the United States, and (3) that the city and harbor of Manila 
should be held by us till a treaty of peace was signed and the 
fate of the Philippines settled. ^ 

The treaty was signed at Paris, December 10, 1898, and 
went into force upon its ratification four months later. Spain 
agreed to withdraw from Cuba, and to cede us Porto Rico, 
Guam (one of the Ladrone Islands), and the Philippines. Our 
government agreed to pay Spain -^20,000,000. 

Hawaii, meanwhile, had steadily been seeking annexation 
to the United States. Many causes prevented it ; but during 
the war with Spain the possibility of our holding the Philip- 
pines gave importance to the Hawaiian Islands, and in July, 
1898, they were annexed. In 1900 they were formed into 
the territory of Hawaii. About the same time several other 
small Pacific islands were acquired b}^ our country. ^ 

Porto Rico and Cuba. — For Porto Rico, Congress provided 
a system of civil government which went into effect May 1, 
1900, and made the island a dependency, or colony — a district 
governed according to special laws of Congress, but not form- 
ing part of our country. ^ 

When Spain withdrew from Cuba, our government took 
control, and after introducing many sanitary reforms, turned 
the cities over to the Cubans. The people then elected 
delegates to a convention which formed a constitution, and 

1 The city of Manila was captured through a combined attack by Dewey's 
fleet and Merritt's army, August lo, before news of the protocol had been 
received. 

2 Our flag was raised over Wake Island early in 1899. Part of the Samoa 
group, including Tutuila (too-too-e'la) and small adjacent islands, was acquired 
in 1900 by a joint treaty with Great Britain and Germany; these islands are 77 
square miles in area and have 6000 population. Many tiny islands in the Pacific, 
most of them rocks or coral reefs, belong to us ; but they are of little impor- 
tance, except the Midway Islands, which are occupied by a party of telegraphers 
in charge of a relay in tlie cable joining our continent with the Philippines. 

3 Porto Rico is a little smaller than Connecticut, but has a population of 
about one million, of whom a third are colored. The civil government consists 
of a governor, an executive council of 11 members, and a House of Delegates 
of 35 members elected by the people. The island is represented at Washington 
by a resident commissioner. 




425 



426 



ECONOMIC DE VELOPMExNT 



when this had been adopted and a president elected, our troops 
were withdrawn, and (May 20, 1902) the Cubans began to 
govern their ishmd. 

War in the Philippines. — When our forces entered Manihi 
(August, 1898), native troops under Aguinaldo(ahg-ee-nald'd5), 
who had revolted against Spanish rule, held Luzon ^ and most 
of the other islands. Aguinaldo now demanded that we shoidd 




A Philippine market. 

turn the islands over to his party, and when this was refused, 
attacked our forces in Manila. War followed ; but in battle 
after battle the native troops were beaten and scattered, and in 

^ The Philippine group numbers about two thousand islands. The land area 
is about equal to that of New England and New York ; that is, 115,000 square 
miles. Luzon, the largest, is about the size of Kentucky. A census taken in 
1903 gave a population of 7,000,000, of whom 000,000 were savages. For several 
years the Philippines were governed by the President, first through the army, 
and then through an appointed commission. This commission, with Judge 
William H. Taft as president, began its duties in June of 1900 ; but by act 
of Congress (July 1, 1902) a new plan of government has been provided for. 
This includes a governor and a legislature of two branches, one the Philippine 
commission of eight members, and the other an assembly chosen by the Filipinos. 



RECENT EVENTS 



427 



time Aguinaldo was captured. The group of islands is now 
governed as a dependency. 

War in China. — The next country with which we had 
trouble was China. Early in 1900 members of a Chinese soci- 
ety called the Boxers began to kill Christian natives, mission- 
aries, and other foreigners. The disorder soon reached Peking, 
where foreign ministers, many Europeans, and Americans were 
besieged in the part of the city where they were allowed to 
reside. Ships and troops were at once sent to join the forces of 
Japan and the powers of Europe in rescuing the foreigners in 
Peking. War was not declared ; but some battles were fought 
and some towns cap- 




I --.-:. ]Dots indicate regions settti 
I'i^ between 1880 and 1900 



tured before Peking" 
was taken and China 
brought to reason.! 

The Census of 
1900. — At home in 
lUUO our population 
was counted for the 
twelfth time in our 
histoiy and found to 
be 76,000.000. This Settled area in 1900. 

census did not include the population of Porto Kico, Guam, 
or the Philippines. In New York the population exceeded 
that of the whole United States in 1810 ; in Pennsylvania it 
was greater than that of the whole United States in 1800, 
and Ohio and Illinois each had more people than the whole 
country in 1790. 

1 In 1898 the emperor of Russia invited many of the nations of the world to 
meet and discuss the reduction of their armies and navies. Delegates from twenty- 
six nations accordingly met at the Hague (in Holland) in May, 1899, and there 
discussed (1) disarmament, (2) revision of the laws of land and naval war, (3) 
mediation and arbitration. Three covenants or agreements were made and left 
open for signature by the nations till 1900. One forbade the use in war of deadly 
gases, of projectiles dropped from balloons, and of bullets made to expand in the 
human body. The second revised the laws of war, and the third provided for 
a permanent court of arbitration at the Hague, before which cases may be 
brought with the consent of the nations concerned. 



428 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

Immigration. — In 1879 (p. 403) a great wave of immi- 
gration began and rose rapidly till nearly 800,000 foreigners 
came in one year, in 1882. Then the wave declined, but for 
the rest of the century every year brought several hundred 
thousand. In 1900 another great wave was rising, and by 
1905 more than 1,000,000 immigrants were coming every year. 
For some years these immigrants have come mostly from south- 
ern and eastern Europe. 

Growth of Cities. — ^lost remarkable has been the rapid 
growth of our cities. In 1790 there were but 6 cities of over 
8000 inhabitants each in the United States, and their total 
population was but 131,000. In 1900 there were 545 such cities, 
and their inhabitants numbered 25,000,000 — about a third of 
the entire population ; 38 of tliese cities had each more than 
100,000 inhabitants. By 1906 our largest city, New York, had 
more than 4,000,000 people, Chicago had passed the 2,000,000 
mark, and Philadelphia had about 1,500,000. 

The New South. — The census of 1900 brought out other 
facts of great interest. For many years after 1860 the South 
had gone backward rather than forward. From 1880 to 1900 
her progress was wonderful. In 1880 she was loaded with 
debt, her manufactures of little importance, her railways di- 
lapidated, her banks few in number, and her laboring population 
largely unemployed. In 1900 her cotton mills rivaled those 
of New England. Since 1880 her cotton crop has doubled, 
her natural resources have begun to be developed, and coal, 
iron, lumber, cottonseed oil, and (in Texas and Louisiana) 
petroleum have become important products. Alabama ranks 
high in the list of coal-producing states, and her city of Bir- 
mingham has become a great center of the iron and steel 
industry. Atlanta and many other Southern cities are now 
important manufacturing centers. 

With material prosperity came ability to improve the sys- 
tems of public schools. Throughout the South separate schools 
are maintained for white and for negro children ; and great 
progress has been made in both. 



RECENT EVENTS 



429 



The Election of 1900. — One of the signs of great prosperity 
in our country has always been the number of political parties. 
In the campaign for the election of President and Vice Presi- 
dent in 1900 there were eleven pai'ties. lai-o-c and small. Hut 
the contest really was be- 
tween the Republicans, who 
nominated William Mc- 
Kinley and Theodore Roose- 
velt, and the Democrats, 
who nominated William J. 
Bryan and Adlai E. Steven- 
son, indorsed by the Popu- 
list and Silver parties. 

McKinley Assassinated. 
— McKinley and Roosevelt 
were elected, and duly in- 
augurated March 4, 1901. 
In that year a great Pan- 
American Exposition was 
held at Buffalo, and while 
attending it in September, 
McKinley was shot by an 
anarchist who, during a pub- 
lic reception, approached 
him as if to shake liands. Early on the morning of Septem- 
ber 14 the President died, and Vice-President Roosevelt ^ suc- 
ceeded to the presidency. 

1 Theodore Roosevelt was born in New York in 1858, graduated from Har- 
vard University in 1880, and from 1882 to 1884 was a member of the legislature 
of New York. In 1886 he was the candidate of tlie Republican party for mayor 
of New York city and was defeated. In 1889 he was appointed a member of 
the United vStates Civil Service Commission, but resigned in 1895 to become 
president of the New York city police board. In 1897 he was appointed As- 
sistant Secretary of the Navy, but when the war with Spain opened, resigned 
and organized the First United States Cavalry Volunteers, popularly known 
as Roosevelt's Rough Riders. Of this regiment he was lieutenant colonel 
and then colonel, and after it was mustered out of service, was elected gov- 
ernor of New York in the autumn of 1898. He is the author of many books on 
history, biography, and hunting, besides essays and magazine articles. 




Vupiiiiqhl, VJtll,. I,v I'nr/i Hnjs. AM'. 

Theodore Roosevelt. 



430 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

The Chinese. — In President Roosevelt's first message to 
Congress (December, 1901) he dealt with man)^ current issues. 
One of his requests was for further legislation concerning 
Chinese laborers. The Chinese Exclusion Act accordingly was 
(1902) applied to our island possessions, and no Chinese laborer 
is now allowed to enter one of them, nor may those already 
there go from one group to another, or come to any of our 
states. 

Irrigation. — Another matter urged on the attention of 
Congress b}" the President was the irrigation ^ of arid public 
lands in the West in order that they might be made fit for 
settlement. Great reservoirs for the storage of water should 
be built, and canals to lead the water to the arid lands should 
be constructed at government expense, the land so reclaimed 
should be kept for actual settlers, and the cost repaid by the 
sale of the land. Congress in 1902 approved the plan, and by 
law set aside the money derived from the sale of public land in 
thirteen states and three territories as a fund for building irri- 
gation works. The work of reclamation was begun the next 
year, and by 1907 eight new towns with some 10,000 people 
existed on lands thus watered. 

Isthmian Canal Routes. — The project of a canal across the 
isthmus connecting North and South America, was more than 
seventy-five years old. But no serious attempt was made to 
cut a water way till a French company was organized in 1878, 
spent '^260,000,000 in ten years, and then failed. Another 
French company then took up the work, and in turn laid it 
down for want of funds. So the matter stood when the war with 
Spain brought home to us the great importance of an isthmian 
canal. Then the question arose. Which was the better of two 
routes, that by Lake Nicaragua, or that across the isthmus of 
Panama? 2 Congress (1899) sent a commission to consider 

^ Before this time many small areas had been irrigated by means of works 
constructed by individuals, by companies, and by local governments. 

'^ In 1825 Central America invited us to build a canal by way of Lake Nica- 
ragua, and from that time forth the question was often before Congress. In 
Jackson's time a commissioner was sent to examine the Nicaragua route and 



RECENT EVENTS 



431 



CARIBBEAN 
SEA >,', 



this, and it reported that both routes were feasible. Thereupon 
the French company offered to sell its rights and the unfinished 
canal for $40,000,000, and Congress (1902) authorized the Presi- 
dent to buy the rights and property of the French company, 
and finish the Panama Canal; or, if Colombia would not grant us 
control of the necessary 
strip of land, to build one 
by the Nicaragua route. 

The Panama Canal 
Treaty. — In the spring 
of 1903, accordingly, a 
treaty was negotiated 
with Colombia for the 
construction of the Pan- 
ama Canal. Our Senate 
ratified, but Colombia re- 
jected the treaty, where- 
upon the province of 
Panama (November, 
1903) seceded from Co- 
lombia and became an 
independent republic. 

Our government promptly recognized the new republic, 
and a treaty with it was ratified (February, 1904) by which we 




CANAL ZONE 

SCALE OF MILES 



V ^ TABOGHILLA I 



1^ 



w 



that across the isthmus of Panama. After Texas was annexed we made a treaty 
with New Granada (now Colombia), and secured " tlie right of way or transit 
across the isthmus of Panama upon any modes of communication that now exist, 
or that may be hereafter constructed." After tlie Mexican war, the discovery 
of gold in California, and the expansion of our territory on the Pacific coast, the 
importance of a canal was greatly increased. But Great Britain stepped in and 
practically seized control of the Nicaragua route. A crisis followed, and in 1850 
we made with Great Britain the Clayton-Bulwer treaty, by which each party 
was pledged never to obtain " exclusive control over the said ship canal." When 
(in ]!)00) we practically decided to build by the Nicaragua route, and felt we 
nuist have exclusive control, it became necessary to abrogate this part of the 
Clayton-Bulwer treaty. The Hay-Pauncefote treaty was therefore made, by 
which Great Britain gave up all claim to a share in the control of such a canal, 
and tlie United States guaranteed that any isthmian canal built by us should be 
open to all nations on equal terms. 



432 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

secured the right to dig the canal. The property of tlie French 
company was then purchased, and a commission appointed to 
superintend the work of construction. ^ 

The Alaskan Boundary. — By our treaty of purchase of 
Alaska, its boundaries depended on an old treaty between Russia 
and Great Britain. When gold was discovered in Canada in 
1871, a dispute arose over the boundary, and it became serious 
when gold was discovered in the Klondike region in 1896. 
Our claim placed the boundary of southeastern Alaska thirty- 
five miles inland and parallel to the coast. Canada put it so 
much farther west as to give her several important ports. The 
matter was finally submitted to arbitration, and in 1903 the 
decision divided the land in dispute, but gave us all the ports. ^ 

Presidential Election of 1904. — The campaign of 1904 was 
opened by the nomination by the Hepublican party of Theodore 
Roosevelt and Charles W. Fairbanks. The Democrats presented 
Alton B. Parker and Henrj^ G. Davis, and in the course of 
the summer seven other parties — the People's, the Socialist, 
the Socialist Labor, the Prohibition, the United Christian, the 
National Liberty, and the Continental — nominated candi- 
dates. Roosevelt and Fairbanks were elected.^ 

Oklahoma. — Among the demands of the Democratic party 
in 1904 was that for the admission of Oklahoma and Indian 

1 In accordance with our rights under the treaty, Congress (April, 1904) 
authorized tlie President, as soon as he had acquired the property of tlie canal 
company and paid Panama $10,000,000, to take possession of the "Canal 
Zone," a strip ten miles wide (live miles on each side of the canal) stretching 
across the isthmus and extending three marine miles from low water out into 
the ocean at each end. On April 22, 10;i4, the property of the canal com- 
pany was transferred at Paris, and on May 9 the company was paid $40,000,000 ; 
Panama had already been paid her $10,000,000, and on May 19 General Davis, 
president of the Canal Commission, issued a proclamation announcing the be- 
ginning of his administration as governor of the Canal Zone. 

2 Another event of 1893 was the addition of a ninth member to the Cabinet, — 
the Secretary of Commerce and Labor. The Secretary of Agriculture (1889) was 
the eighth member. 

3 By 836 electoral votes against 140 for Parker and Davis. The popular 
vote was : Republican, 7,623,486 ; Democratic, 5,077,971 ; Socialist, 402,283 ; 
Prohibition, 258,536; Populist, 117,183; Socialist Labor, 31,249; all others 
combined, less than 10,000. 



RECENT EVENTS 433 

Territory as one state, and of New Mexico and Arizona as 
separate states. In 1906 Congress autlioi'ized the people of 
Oklalionia^ and Indian Territory to frame a constitution, and if 
it were adopted by vote of the people, the President was em- 
powered to proclaim the state of Oklahoma a member of the 
Union, wliich was done in 1907. The same act authorized the 
people of New Mexico and Arizona to vote separately on the 
question whether the two should form one state to be called 
Arizona. At the election (in November, 1906) a majority of 
the people of New Mexico voted for, and a majority of the 
people of Arizona against, joint statehood, so the two remained 
separate territories. 

Pure Food and Meat Inspection Laws. — At the same session 
of Congress (1906) two other wise and greatly needed laws 
were enacted. For years past the adulteration of food, drugs, 
medicines, and liquors had been carried on to an extent dis- 
graceful to our country. The Pure Food Act, as it is called, 
was passed to prevent the manufacture of " adulterated or mis- 
branded or poisonous or deleterious foods, drugs, medicines, and 
liquors " in the District of Columbia and the territories, or the 
transportation of such articles from one state to another. Foods 
and drugs entering into interstate commerce must be correctly 
labeled. 

The meat inspection act requires that all meat and food 
products intended for sale or transportation as articles of inter- 
state or foreign commerce, shall be inspected by officials of the 
Department of Agriculture and marked " inspected and passed." 
iVU slaughtering, packing, and canning establishments must be 
inspected and their products duly labeled. 

Intervention in Cuba. — As the year 1906 drew to a close, we 
were once more called on to intervene in affairs in Cuba. The 
elections of 1905 in that island had l)een followed by the revolt 

^ The central portion of Indian Territory was opened for settlement on April 
22, 1889, when a great rush was made for the new lands. Other areas were soon 
added, and in 1890 Oklahoma territory was organized. It included the we.stern 
iialf of the Indian Territory shown on p. o94. 

McM. I5UIKF — 2(i 



434 ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT 

of the defeated party, and the appearance of armed bands which 
threatened the chief towns and even Havana. An attempt to 
bring about an understanding with the rebels was repudiated 
by President Palma, who dechired martial law and called a 
meeting of the Cuban congress, which body gave him supreme 
power. 

President Roosevelt, under our treaty with Cuba, was bound 
to maintain in that island a government able to protect life and 
property. Secretary-of-War Taft was therefore sent to Havana 
to examine into affairs, and while he was so engaged President 
Palraa resigned, and the Cuban congress did not elect a suc- 
cessor. Secretary Taft then assumed the governorship of the 
island and held it till October, when Charles Magoon was ap- 
pointed temporary governor. 

SUMMARY 

1. Our foreign relations since 1898 have been most important. In 1898 
there was a short war with Spain. 

2. The chief events of the war were the battle of Manila Bay, the sink- 
ing of the Merrimac, the battles near Santiago, the destruction of Cevera's 
fleet, the invasion of Porto Rico, and the capture of Manila. 

3. Peace brought us the Philippines, Porto Rico, and Guam, and forced 
Spain to withdraw from Cuba. 

4. Cuba for a while remained under our flag ; but in 1902 we withdrew, 
and Cuba became a republic. Later events forced us to intervene in 1906. 

5. In 1900 events forced us into a short war in China. 

6. In 1898 Hawaii was annexed, and in 1900 was organized as a terri- 
tory; in 1903 our dispute wdth Great Britain over the Alaskan boundary 
was settled ; and in 1904 a treaty with Panama gave us the right to dig the 
Panama Canal. 

7. Prominent among domestic affairs since 1898, are the assassination 
of President McKinley (1901); the Irrigation Act of 1902; the pure food 
and meat inspection laws of 1906; and the admission of the state of 
Oklahoma. 



APPENDIX 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE — 1776 



In Congress, July 4, 1776. 
the unanimous declaration of the thirteen united states of america 

"When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to 
dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume, 
among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of 
nature and ()f nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind 
requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. 

We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal; that they 
are endowed by their Creator with certain uiuilieiiable rights; that among these are 
life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. That, to secure these rights, governments 
are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the gov- 
erned ; that, whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, 
it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, 
laying its foundation on such principles, and organizing its powers in such form, 
as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, 
indeed, will dictate that governments long established, should not be changed for 
light and transient causes; and, accordingly, all experience hath shown, that man- 
kind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves 
by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But, when a long train of 
abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object, evinces a design 
to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw 
off such goveriunent, and to provide new guards for their future security. — Such 
has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity 
which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history 
of the present king of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, 
all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these States. 
To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world. 

He has refused his assent to laws the most wholesome and necessary for the 
public good. 

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and j^ressing importance, 
unless susj^ended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and, when so 
suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them. 

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of 
people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the 
legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only. 

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and 
distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing 
them int(j compliance with his measures. 

i 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing, with manly 
firnDiess, his invasions on the rights of the people. 

He has refused, for a long time after such dissolutions, to cause others to be 
elected ; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned 
to the people at large for their exercise ; the State remaining, in the meantime, 
exposed to all tiie dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within. 

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose 
obstructing the laws for naturalizatiou of foreigners; refusing to pass others to 
encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations 
of lands. 

He .has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for 
establishing judiciary powers. 

He has made judges dependent on his will alone for the tenure of their offices, 
and the amount and payment of their salaries. 

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers 
to harass our people, and eat out their substance. 

He has kept among us in times of peace, standing armies, without the consent 
of our legislature. 

He has affected to render the military independent of, and superior to, the civil 
power. 

He has combined, with others, to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to onr con- 
stitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of 
pretended legislation : 

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us: 

For protecting them, by a mock trial, from punishment for any murders which 
they should commit on the inhabitants of these States: 

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world : 

For imposing taxes on us without our consent: 

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury: 

For transporting ns beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses : 

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, estab- 
lishing therein an arbitrary government and enlarging its boundaries, so as to 
render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute 
rule into these colonies : 

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering, 
fundamentally, the forms of our governments: 

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with 
l)ower to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever. 

He has abdicated government here by declaring us out of his protection, and 
waging war agaiust us. 

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed 
the lives of our people. 

He is, at this time, transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete 
the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun, with circumstances of 
cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally 
unworthy the hea<l of a civilized nation. 

He has constrained our fellow-citizens, taken captive on the high seas, to bear 
arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, 
or to fall themselves by their hands. 

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring 
on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known 
rule of warfare is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes, and condi- 
tions. 

In every stage of these oppressions, we have petitioned for redress in the most 
humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. 



THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 

A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, 
is unfit to be the ruler of a free people. 

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned 
them, from time to time, of attempts by their legislature to extend au unwarrantable 
jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigra- 
tion and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, 
and we have conjured them, by the ties of our common kindred, to disavow these 
usurpations, which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. 
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and consanguinity. We must, there- 
fore, acquiesce in the necessity which denounces our separatiou, aud hold them, as 
we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends. 

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in general 
Congress assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude 
of our intentions, do, in the name, and by authority of the good people of these 
colonies, solemnly publish and declare. That these United Colonies are, and of right 
ought to be, free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance 
to the British crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of 
Great Britain is, and ought to be, totally dissolved ; and that, as free and independ- 
ent States, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, 
establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent States 
may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on 
the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our 
fortunes, and our sacred houor. John Hancock. 



New Ilampshii-e 

JosiahBartlett, 
W\\\. \\'lii|>i)le, 
Mali hew Tliornton. 

Massachusetts Bay 

Saml. Adams, 
John Adams, 
Robt. Treat Paine, 
Elbridge Gerry. 

Rhode Island 

Step. Hopkins, 
William Ellery. 

Connecticut 

Roger Sherman, 
Sam 'el Huntington, 
Wm. Williams, 
Oliver Wolcott. 

Nero York 

Wm. Floyd, 
Phil. Livingston, 
Frans. Lewis, 
Lewis Morris. 



New Jersey 

Richd. Stockton, 
Jno. Witherspoon, 
Fras. Hopkinson, 
John Hart, 
Abra. Clark. 

Pennsylvania 

Robt. Morris, 
Benjamin Rush, 
Beiija. Franklin, 
John Morton, 
Geo. Clymer, 
Jas. Smith, 
Geo. Taylor, 
James Wilson, 
Geo. Ross. 

Delaware 

Caesar Rodney, 
Geo. Read, 
Tho. M'Kean. 

Maryland 

Samuel Chase, 
Wm. Paca, 
Thos. Stone, 



Charles Carroll of Carroll- 
ton. 

Virginia 

George Wythe, 
Richard Henry Lee, 
Th Jefferson, 
Benja. Harrison, 
Thos. Nelson, jr., 
Francis Lightfoot Lee, 
Carter Braxton. 

North Carolina 

Wm. Hooper, 
Joseph Hewes, 
John Penn. 

South Carolina 

Edward Rutledge, 
Thos. Heyward^ Junr., 
Thomas Lynch, Junr., 
Arthur Middleton. 

Georgia 

Button Gwinnett, 
Lyman Hall, 
Geo. Walton. 



COXSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES — 1787 ^ 



We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, 
establish justice, insure domestic tranquillity, provide for the common defense, 
promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and 
our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of 
America. 

ARTICLE I 

Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress 
of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives. 

Section 2. 1 The House of Representatives shall be composed of members 
chosen exery second year by the people of the several States, and the electors in 
each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous 
branch nl the State legislature. 

2 No person shall be a representative who shall not have attained to the age of 
twenty-five years, and been seven years a citizen of the Uiiited States, and who sluiU 
not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State in which he shall be chosen. 

;5 Representatives and direct taxes shall be apportioned among the several 
States which may be included within this Union, according to their respective num- 
bers, which shall be determined by adding to the whole number of free persons, 
including those bound to service for a term of years, and excluding Indians not 
taxed, three fifths of all other persons. 2 The actual enumeration shall be made 
within three years after the first meeting of the Congress of the United States, 
and within every subsequent term of ten years, in such manner as they shall by law 
direct. The number of representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty thou- 
sand, but each State shall have at least one representative; and until such enumera- 
tion sliall be made, the State of New Hampshire shall be entitled to choose three, 
Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence Plantations one, Connecticut five, 
New York six, New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware one, Maryland six, 
Virginia ten. North Carolina five, South Carolina five, and Georgia three. 

4 When vacancies happen in the representation from any State, the executive 
authority thereof shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies. 

5 The House of Representatives shall choose their speaker and other officers, 
and shall have the sole power of impeacliment. 

Section .3. 1 The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators 
from each State, chosen by the legislature thereof for six years; and each senator 
shall have one vote. 

2 Immediately after they shall be assembled in consequence of the first election, 
they .shall be divided as equally as may be into three classes. The seats of the sen- 
ators of the first class shall be vacated at the expiration of the second year, of the 
second class at the expiration of the fcuirth year, and of the third class at the 
expiration of the sixth year, so that one third may be chosen every secoiul year; 
and if vacancies happen by resignation, or otherwise, during the recess of the legis- 
lature of any State, the executive thereof may make temporary appointments until 
the next meeting of the legislature, which shall then fill such vacancies. 

3 No person shall be a senator who shall not have attained to the age of thirty 
years, and been nine years a citizen of the United States, and who shall not, when 
elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall be chosen. 

'This reiirint of the Constitution exactly follows the text of that in the Department of State at 
Washington, save in the siielling: of a few words. 

2 The last half of this sentence was super-seded by the 13th and 14th Amendments. (Seep, xii 
foUowitifr.) 

iv 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

4 The Vice President of the United States shall he President of the Senate, 
but shall have no vote, unless they be equally divided. 

5 The Senate shall choose their other otiicers, and also a president pro tempore, 
in the absence of the Vice President, or when he shall exercise the office of President 
(if the Uniii-d States. 

(i The Senate shall have the sole power to try all impeachments. When sitting for 
that purpose, they shall be on oath or affirmation. When the President of the 
I'nited States is tried, the chief justice shall preside: and no person shall be con- 
victed without the concurrence of two thirds of the members present. 

7 Judgment in cases of impeachment shall not extend further than to removal 
from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or 
profit under the United States: but the party coiivii-ted shall nevertheless be liable 
and subject to indictment, trial, judgment and punishment, according to law. 

Section 4. 1 The times, places, and manner of holding elections for senators 
and representatives, shall l)e prescrihed in each State by the legislature thereof ; but 
the Congress may at any time by law make or alter sucli regulations, except as to the 
2)laces of choosing senators. 

2 The Congress shall assemble at least once in every year, and such meeting 
shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by law appoint a dif- 
ferent day. 

Section 5. 1 Each House shall be the judge of the elections, returns and qualifi- 
cations of its own members, and a majority of each shall constitute a quorum to do 
business; but a smaller number may adjourn from day to day, and may be author- 
ized to compel the attendance of absent members, in such manner, and under such 
penalties as each House may provide. 

2 Each House may determine the rules of its proceedings, punish its members 
for disorderly behaviour, and, with the concurrence of two thirds, expel a member. 

3 Each House shall keep a journal of its proceedings, ana from time to time imb- 
lisli the same, excepting such parts as may in their judgment require secrecy; and 
the yeas and nays of the members of either House on any question shall, at the 
desire of one fifth of those present. l)e entered on the journal. 

4 Neither House, during the session of Congress, shall, without the consent 
of the other, adjourn for more than three days, nor to any other place than that in 
which the two Houses shall be sitting. 

Section 6. 1 The senators and representatives shall receive a compensation 
for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the Treasury of the 
United States. They shall in all cases, except treason, felony and breach of the 
peace, be privileged from arrest during their attendance at the session of their 
respective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any 
speech or debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place 

2 No senator or reju'esentative shall, during the time for which he was elected, 
be appointed to any civil office under the authority of the United States, which shall 
have been created, or the emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such 
time: and no per.son holding any office under the Uniteil States shall be a member 
of either House during his continuance in office. 

Section 7. 1 All bills for raising revenue shall originate in the House of Repre- 
sentatives: but the Senate may propose or concur with amendments as on other bills. 

2 Every bill which shall have passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, 
shall, before it become a law, be presented to the President of the United States; if 
he approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his objecticns to that 
House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the objections at large on 
their journal, and proceed to reconsider it. If after such reconsideration two 
thirds of that House shall agree to pass the bill, it shall be sent, together with the 
objections, to the other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, ainl if 
approved by two thirds of that House, it shall become a law. But in all such cases 
the votes of both Houses shall be determined by yeas and nays, and the names of the 
persons voting for and against the bill shall be entered on the journal of each House 
respectively. If any bill shall not ])e returned by the President within ten days 
(Sundays excepted) after it shall have been presented to him, the same shall be a 
law, in like manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by their adjournment 
prevent its return, in which case it shall not be a law. 

3 Every order, resolution, or vote to which the concurrence of the Senate and 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

House of Representatives may be necessary (except on a question of adjournment) 
shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the same shall 
take effect, shall be approved by him, or beinj; disapproved by him, shall be re- 
passed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representatives, according to the 
rules and limitations prescribed in the case of a bill. 

Sectiox 8. 1 The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, 
imposts and excises, to pay the debts and provide for the common defense and 
general welfare of the United St;itt\s; but all duties, imposts and excises shall be 
uniform throughout the United States; 

'2 To borrow money on the credit of the United States; 

3 To regulate commerce with foreign nations, and among the several States, 
and with the Indian tribes; 

4 To establish an uniform rule of naturalization, and uniform laws on the sub- 
ject of bankruptcies throughout the United States; 

5 To coin money, regulate the value thereof, and of foreign coin, and fix the 
standard of weights and measures; 

(i To provide for the punishment of counterfeiting the securities and current 
coin of the United States; 

7 To establish post offices and post roads ; 

8 To promote the progress of science and useful arts by securing for limited 
times to authors and inventors the exclusive right to their respective writings and 
discoveries ; 

9 To constitute tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ; 

10 To define and punish piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and 
offenses against the law of nations ; 

11 Todeelare war, grant letters of marque and reprisal, and make rules con- 
cerning captures on land and water ; 

13 To raise and support armies, but no appropriation of money to that use 
shall be for a longer term than two years; 

13 To provide and maintain a navy ; 

14 To make rules for the government and regulation of the land and naval 
forces ; 

15 To provide for calling forth the militia to execute the laws of the Union, 
suppress insurrections and repel invasions; 

l(i To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the militia, and for 
governing such part of them as may be employed in the service of the United 
States, reserving to the States respectively the appointment of the officers, and 
the authority of training the militia according to the discipline prescribed by Con- 
gress ; 

17 To exercise exclusive legislation in all cases whatsoever, over such district 
(not exceeding ten miles square) as may, by cession of particular States atid the 
acceptance of Congress, become the seat of the government of the United States, ^^ 
and to exercise like authority over all places purchased by the consent of the legisla- 
ture of the State in which the same shall be, for the erection of forts, magazines, 
arsenals, dockyards, and other needful buildings; and 

18 To make all laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into execu- 
tion the foregoing powers, and all other powers vested by this Constitution in the 
government of the United States, or in any department or officer thereof. 

Section 9. 1 The migration or importation of such persons as any of the States 
now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by the Congress 
prior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight, but a tax or duty nuiy be 
imposed on such importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each person. ^ 

2 The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless 
when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it. 

3 No bill of attainder or ex post facto law .shall be passed. 

4 No capitation, or other direct, tax shall be laid, unless in proportion to the 
census or enumeration hereinbefore directed to be taken. 

5 No tax or duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. 

6 No preference shall be given by any regulation of commerce or revenue to 
the ports of one State over those of another : nor shall vessels bound to, or from, 
one State be obliged to enter, clear, or pay duties in another. 

'The District of Cohimbia, which comes under these regulations, had not then been erected. 
2 A temiiorary clause, no longer in force. See also Article V, p. ix. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

7 No nioiioy shall 1)(> drawn from tlie treasury. Imt in coiiseqiu'iice of appropria- 
tions niadf by law ; and a regular stalcnient and account of the receipts and expen- 
ditures of all i)nl)iic money sliall l)e published from time to time. 

M No title of nobility shall be fjranted by the Unit(^d States: and no pei'son 
holdinj;- any otHce of profit or trust under them, shall, without the (consent of the 
Coufiress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, 
from any king, prince, or foreign iState. 

Section WA 1 No State shall enter into any treaty, alliance, or confederaticm ; 
grant letters of marcpie and reprisal: coin money: emit bills of credit ; make any- 
thing but gold and silvcM' coin a tender in payment of debts; i)ass any bill i)f 
attainder, p.r post facto law, or law impairing tlu; obligation of contracts, or grant 
any title of nobility. 

2 No State shall, without thecon.sent of the Congress, lay any imposts or duties on 
imports or expiu-ts, excejn what may be absolutely necessary for executing its in- 
spection laws: and the net produce of all duties and imposts laid by any State 
on imports or exports, shall be for the u.se of the treasury of the United States; 
and all such laws shall be subject to the revision and control of the ("oiigri^ss. 

'.\ No State shall, without the consent of C'/ongress, lay any duty of toUTiage, 
keej) trooj)s, or shii)S (d' war in time of peac(\ enter into any agreement or compact 
with another State, or with a foreign power, or engage in war, unless actually 
invaded, or in such imminent danger as will not admit of delay. 

ARTICLE II 

Section 1. 1 The executive power shall be vested in a President of the United 
States of America. He shall hold his office during the term of four years, and, 
together with the \'ice President, chosen for the same term. Xw. elected, as follows. 

■J l']ach State shall appoint, in such manner as the legislature; thereol niay direct, 
a number of electors, ecpial to the whole number of s(!nators and re|)resent;it ives 
to which the State; may be entitled in the Congress: but no senator or representative, 
or person holding an office of trust or profit under the United States, shall be ap- 
pointed an elector. 

The elet'tors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two 
persons, of whom one at least shall not be an iidiabitant of the same State with 
themselves. And they shall make a list of all the jx'rsons voted for, and of tin; 
number of votes for each : which list they shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed 
to the seat of the government (d' the I'nited States, directed to the ])i-csi(lent of the 
Senate. The i)resi(leut of the Senate, shall, in the presence of the Senate; and House 
of Representatives, open all the (;ertiti(;ates, and the votes shall then be counted. 
The person having the greatest number of votes shall be the Pi'esident. if such 
number be a majority of flu; whole number of el(;(;tors a|)pointed ; and if th(;r(; be 
more than on<; who have; sue-h majority, aiiel have' an eejual numbe'r ed' veite's, tlu'ii 
the House of Representative's shall imme'eliate'ly e-lioose by ballot one e)f the'Ui for 
Pre'side'nt: anel if u) jx'rson have a majority, the'U frenu the live highest em the; list 
the said house shall in like manner choose the Preside'nt. Hut in e-hoosing the 
Presielent, the votes shall be taken by States, the represe;ntatie)n from each State 
having enie vote; a quorum for this purpose shall cemsist of a member or members 
from two thirels of the States, anel a maje)rity e)f all the' Stale's shall be necessary to 
a e'lieiie-e'. In e'xery Case, after the; e'lioie-e eif the Pre'siele;nt , the> ])erson having the 
gre'atest luimbe'r e>f ve)te;s e)f the elee'teirs shall be the; Vie'c Pre'sielent. Hut if there 
she)ulel re'inain twe) e)r meire whe) have eepial votes, the Senate shall choe)se from them 
by balle)t the Vie-e Pre;sielent.'^ 

•'{ The; (Jongress may dete'rmine the time of choosing the electors, and the day on 
wbie-h they shall give their votes ; which elay shall be the same throughemt the United 
States. 

4 No perse)n exe'Cjit a natural be>rn e-itizen, eir \i citizen e)f the Unite'el States, at 
the time ed' the' aele)ptie)n of this Ce)nst itntion, shall be' e'ligible' te) the' e)t}ie'e e)f I're-s- 
ielent: neither shall any jierseju l)e eligible te) that eittice wliej shall ne)t have atlaineel 
te) the age of thirty-five years, and been fe)urteen years a resielent within the 
Unileel States. 

5 In case of the removal of the Presielent from eififice, or of his death, resignation, 

• ?^ee' also flu; KItli, i:?th. Utli, and l.'jtli .ViiU'iidriients, pj). xii, xiii. 
2 Tills paiagrapL siiperseeleel by the I'ith Aint'iidinent, p. .\ii. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

or inability to discharge the powers and duties of the said office, the same shall 
devolve on the Vice President, and the Congress may by law provide lor the ease 
of removal, death, resignation, or inability, both of the President and \'ice 
President, declaring what otKcer shall then act as President, and such otHcer shall 
act accordingly, until the disability be removed, or a President shall be elected. 

G The Presiclent shall, at stated times, receive for his services a compensation, 
which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the period for which he 
shall have been elected, and he shall n(jt receive within that period any other 
emolument from the United States, or any of them. 

7 licfoie he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the followiui,^ oath 
or atKrniatidn : — " 1 do solemnly swear (or affirm) that 1 will faithfully execute the 
office of President of the United Slates, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, 
protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." 

Section 2. 1 The President shall be commander in chief of the army and navy of 
the United States, and of the militia of the several States, when called into the 
actual service of the United States; he may require the opinion, in writing, of the 
principal officer in each of the executive departments, upon any subject relating to 
the duties of their respective offices, and he shall have power to grant reprieves and 
pardons for offenses against the United States, except in cases of impeachment. 

2 He shall have power, by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, to 
make treaties, provided two thirds of the senators present concur ; and he shall 
nominate, and by and with the advice and consent of the Senate, shall appoint 
ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, judges of the Supreme Court, and 
all other officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein otherwise 
provided for, and which shall be established by law: but the Congress may by law 
vest the appointment of such inferior officers, as they think proper, in the President 
alone, in the courts of law, or in the heads of departments. 

3 The President shall have power to fill up all vacancies that may happen during 
the recess of the Senate, by granting commissions which shall expire at the end of 
their next session. 

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the 
state of the Union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall 
judge necessary and expedient ; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both 
Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them with respect 
to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think 
proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take 
care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of 
the United States. 

Section 4. The President, Vice President, and all civil officers of the United 
States, shall be removed from office on impeachment for, and conviction of, treason, 
bribery, or other high crimes and misdemeanors. 

ARTICLE HI 

Section 1. The judicial power of the United States shall be vested in one Supreme 
Court, and in such inferior courts as the Congress may from time to time ordain 
and establish. The judges, both of the Supreme and inferior courts, shall hold 
their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services, 
a compensation which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office. 

Section 2. 1 The judicial power shall extend to all cases, in law and equity, 
arising under this Constitution, the laws of the United States, and ti-eaties made, 
or which shall be made, under their authority ; — to all cases affecting ambassadors, 
other public ministers and consuls; — to all cases of admiralty and maritime juris- 
diction ;— to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; — to con- 
troversies between two or more States ; — between a State and citizens of another 
State;! — between citizens of different States, — between citizens of the same State 
claiming lands under grants of different States, and between a State, or the citizens 
thereof, and foreign States, citizens or subjects. 

2 In all cases affecting aiubassadors, other public ministers and consuls, and 
those in which a State shall be party, the Supreme Court shall have original juris- 
diction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the Supreme Court shall have 

1 See the 11th Aiiiendraent, p. xii. 

viii 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

appellate jurisdicHon, both as to law and fact, witli such exceptions, and under such 
regulations as the Congress sliall make. 

3 The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and 
such trial shall be held in the State where the said crimes shall have been com- 
mitted ; but when not committed within any State, the trial shall be at such place 
or places as the Congress may by law have directed. 

Section 3. 1 Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying 
war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and comfort. 
No person shall be convicted of treason unless on the testimony of two witnesses 
to the same overt act, or on confession in open court. 

2 The Congress shall have p(nver to declare the punishment of treason, but no 
attainder of treason shall work corruption of blood, or forfeiture except during the 
life of the person attainted. 

ARTICLE IV 

Section 1. Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, 
records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may l)y 
general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records and proceedings 
shall be proved, and the effect thereof. 

Section 2. The citizens of each State shall be entitled to all privileges and im- 
munities of citizens in the several States. 

2 A person charged in any State with treason, felony, or other crime, who shall 
flee from justice, and be found in another State, shall on demand of the executive 
authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up to be removed to the 
State having jurisdiction of the crime. 

3 No person lield to service or labor in one State, under the laws thereof, 
e.scaping into another, shall, in consequence of any law or regulation therein, be 
discharged from such service or lal)or, but shall be delivered up on claim of the 
party to whom such service or labor may be due.i 

Section 3. 1 New States may be admitted by the Congress into this Union; 
but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction of any other 
State; nor any State be formed by the junction of two or more States, or parts of 
States, without the consent of the legislatures of the States coiicerued as well as of 
the Congress. 

2 The Congress shall have power to dispose of and make all needful rules and 
regulations respecting the territory or other property belonging to the United States; 
and nothing in this Coiistitiition shall be so construed as to prejudice any claims of 
the United States, or of any particular State. 

Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a 
republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion ; 
and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature can- 
not be convened) against domestic violence. 

ARTICLE V 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall 
propose amendments to this Constitution, or, on the application of the legislatures 
of two thirds of the several States, shall call a convention for proposing amend- 
ments, which, in either case, shall be valid to all intents and purposes, as part of this 
Constitution, when ratified by the legislatures of three fourths of the several States, 
or by conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other mode of ratifica- 
tion may be proposed by the Congress ; Provided that no amendment which may be 
made pi'ior to the year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any manner 
affect the first and fourth clauses in the ninth section of the first article; and that 
no State, without its consent, shall be deprived of its equal suffrage in the Senate. 

ARTICLE VI 

1 All debts contracted and engagements entered into, before the adoption of this 
Constitution, shall be as valid against the LTnited States under this Constitution, 
as under the Confederation. 

1 See the 13th Amendment, p. xii. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 



2 This Constitution, and the laws of the United States which shall be made in 
pursuance thereof; and all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority 
of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land; and the judges in every 
State shall be bound thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws of any State to 
the contrary notwithstanding. 

8 The senators and representatives before mentioned, and the members of the 
several State legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of tlie United 
States, and of the several States, shall be bound by oath or affirmation to support 
this Constitution ; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to 
any office or public trust under the United States. 

ARTICLE VII 

The ratification of the conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for the estab- 
lishment of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the same. 

Done in Convention by the unanimous consent of the States present the seventeenth 
day of September in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty- 
seven, and of the independence of the United States of America the twelfth. In 
witness whereof we have hereunto subscribed our names, 

Go : Washington — 

Presidt. and Deputy from Virginia 



Nevj Hampshire 

John Langdon 
Nicholas (Jilman 



Massachusetts 

Nathaniel Gorham 
Kufus King 

Connecticut 

Wm. Saml. Johnson 
Roger Sherman 

New York 
Alexander Hamilton 



Delaware 

Geo : Read 

Gunning Bedford Jun 
John Dickinson 
Richard Bassett 
Jaco : Broom 

Maryland 

James McHenry 

Dan of St. Thos Jenifer 

Danl. Carroll 

Virguda 

John Blair — - 
James Madison Jr. 



Neil) Jersey 

Wil: Livingston 
David Brearley 
Wni. Paterson 
Jona: Dayton 

Pennsylvania 

B. Franklin 
Thomas Mifflin 
Robt. Morris 
Geo. Clymer 
Thos. Fitzsimons 
Jared IngersoU 
James Wilson 
Gouv Morris 



Attest 



North Carolina 

Wm. Blount 

Richd. Dobbs Spaight 

Hu Williamson 

South Carolina 

J. Rutledge, 

Charles Cotesworth Pinckney 

Charles Pinckney 

Pierce Butler 

Georgia 

William Few 
Abr Baldwin 

William Jackson Secretary. 

X 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Articles in addition to, and amendment of, the Constitution of the United States of 
America, proposed by Congress, and ratified by the legislatures of the several 
States pursuant to the fifth article of the original Constitution. 

ARTICLE II 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibit- 
ing the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of tlie press; 
or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for 
a redress of grievances. 

ARTICLE II 

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right 
of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed. 

ARTICLE III 

No soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the consent 
of the owner, nor in time of war, but in a manner to be prescribed by law. 

ARTICLE IV 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, 
against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants 
shall issue, but upon prol)able cause, supported by oath or attirmation, and par- 
ticularly describing the jjlace to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. 

ARTICLE V 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, 
unless on a presentment or indictment of a graiul jury, except in cases arising in the 
land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or 
public danger; nor shall any person l)e subject for the same off(mse to be twice put 
in jeopardy of life or limb ; nor sliall be compelled in any criminal case to be a 
witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due 
process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use without just com- 
pensation. 

ARTICLE YI 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and 
public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall 
have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, 
and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; to be confronted with 
the witnesses against him ; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in 
his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense. 

ARTICLE YII 

In suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dol- 
lars, the right of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury shall 
be otherwise reexamined in any court of the United States, than according to the 
rules of the common law. 

ARTICLE VIII 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and 
unusual punishments inflicted. 

ARTICLE IX 

The enumeration in the Constitution of certain rights shall not be construed to 
deny or disparage others retained by the people. 

iThe first ten Amenduieiits were adopted in 1791. 

xi 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 



ARTICLE X 

The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor pro- 
hibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people. 

ARTICLE XII 

The judicial power of the United States shall not be construed to extend to any 
suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one of the United States by 
citizens of another State, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign State. 

ARTICLE XH2 

The electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for Presi- 
dent and Vice President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the 
same State with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted tor as 
President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President, and they 
shall make distinct lists of all persons voted for as President and of all persons 
voted for as Vice President, and of the number of V(jtes for each, which lists tliey 
shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the 
Uuiteil States, directed to the president of the Senate; — The president of the Sen- 
ate shall, in the presence of tlie Senate and House of Representatives, open all 
the certificates and the votes shall tlien be counted; — The person having the great- 
est number of votes for President sliall be the President, if such number be a 
majority of tlie whole number of electors appointed; and if no person have such 
majority, then from the persons having the highest numbers not exceeding three 
on the list of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall 
choose immediately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the 
votes shall be taken by States, the representation from each State having one vote; 
a quorum for this pui'pose shall cdusist of a member or members from two thirds of 
the States, and a majority of all the States shall be necessary to a choice. And if 
the House of Representatives shall not choose a President whenever the riglit of 
choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next following, 
then the Vice President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other 
constitutional disability of the President. The pei\son having the greatest number 
of votes as Vice President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority 
of the whole numl)er of electors appointed, and if no person have a majority, then 
from the two highest numbers on the list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President ; 
a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two thirds of the whole number of sena- 
tors, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary to a choice. But no 
person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be eligible to that of 
Vice President of the United States. 

ARTICLE Xni3 

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment 
for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the 
United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation. 

ARTICLE XIV 4 

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the 
jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they 
reside. Nd State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge tlie privi- 
leges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive 
any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to 
any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

' Adopted in 1798. 2 Adopted in 1804. » Adopted in 1865. * Adopted in 1868. 



CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES 

Section 2. Representatives shall be apportioned among the several States 
according to their respective numbers, counting the whole number of persons in 
each State, excluding Indians not taxed. But when the right to vote at any elec- 
tion for the choice of electors for President and Vice President of the United States, 
representatives in Congress, the executive and judicial otHcers of a State, or the. 
members of the legislature thereof, is denied to any of the male inhabitants of such 
State, being twenty-one years of age, and citizens of the United States, or in any 
way abridged, except for participation in re])ellion, or other crime, the basis of 
representation therein shall be reduced in the proportion wliich the number of such 
male citizens shall bear to the whole number of male citizens twenty-one years of 
age in such State. 

Section 3. No person shall be a senator or representative in Congress, or 
elector of President and Vice President, or hold any office, civil or military, under the 
United States, or under any State, who, having previously taken an oath, as a mem- 
ber of Congress, or as an otticer of the United States, or as a member of any State 
legislature, or as an executive or judicial officer of any State, to supj)ort the Consti- 
tution of the United States, shall have engaged in insurrection or rebellion against 
the same, or given aid or comfort to the enemies thereof. But Congress may by 
a vote of two thirds of each House, remove such disability. 

Section 4. The validity of the public debt of the United States, authorized by 
law, including del)ts incurred for payment of pensions and bounties for services 
in suppressing insurrection or rebellion, shall not be questioned. But neither the 
United States nor any State shall assume or pay any debt or obligation incurred 
in aid of insurrection or rebellion against the United States, or any claim for the 
loss or emancipation of any slave ; but all such debts, obligations and claims shall 
be held illegal and void. 

Section .">. The Cf)ngress shall have power to enforce, by appropriate legisla- 
tion, the provisions of this article. 

ARTICLE XVI 

Section 1. The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied 
or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color, or pre- 
vious condition of servitude. 

Section 2. The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate 
legislation, 

1 Adopted in 1670. 



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